3d semiconductor device and structure

ABSTRACT

A 3D semiconductor device, the device including: a first level, where the first level includes a first layer, the first layer including first transistors, and where the first level includes a second layer, the second layer including first interconnections; a second level overlaying the first level, where the second level includes a third layer, the third layer including second transistors, and where the second level includes a fourth layer, the fourth layer including second interconnections; and a plurality of connection paths, where the plurality of connection paths provides connections from a plurality of the first transistors to a plurality of the second transistors, where the second level is bonded to the first level, where the bonded includes oxide to oxide bond regions, where the bonded includes metal to metal bond regions, and where the second level includes at least one voltage regulator.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

This application relates to the general field of Integrated Circuit (IC)devices and fabrication methods, and more particularly to multilayer orThree Dimensional Integrated Circuit (3D-IC) devices and fabricationmethods.

2. Discussion of Background Art

Over the past 40 years, there has been a dramatic increase infunctionality and performance of Integrated Circuits (ICs). This haslargely been due to the phenomenon of “scaling”; i.e., component sizeswithin ICs have been reduced (“scaled”) with every successive generationof technology. There are two main classes of components in ComplementaryMetal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) ICs, namely transistors and wires. With“scaling”, transistor performance and density typically improve and thishas contributed to the previously-mentioned increases in IC performanceand functionality. However, wires (interconnects) that connect togethertransistors degrade in performance with “scaling”. The situation todayis that wires dominate the performance, functionality and powerconsumption of ICs.

3D stacking of semiconductor devices or chips is one avenue to tacklethe wire issues. By arranging transistors in 3 dimensions instead of 2dimensions (as was the case in the 1990s), the transistors in ICs can beplaced closer to each other. This reduces wire lengths and keeps wiringdelay low.

There are many techniques to construct 3D stacked integrated circuits orchips including:

-   -   Through-silicon via (TSV) technology: Multiple layers of        transistors (with or without wiring levels) can be constructed        separately. Following this, they can be bonded to each other and        connected to each other with through-silicon vias (TSVs).    -   Monolithic 3D technology: With this approach, multiple layers of        transistors and wires can be monolithically constructed. Some        monolithic 3D and 3DIC approaches are described in U.S. Pat.        Nos. 8,273,610, 8,298,875, 8,362,482, 8,378,715, 8,379,458,        8,450,804, 8,557,632, 8,574,929, 8,581,349, 8,642,416,        8,669,778, 8,674,470, 8,687,399, 8,742,476, 8,803,206,        8,836,073, 8,902,663, 8,994,404, 9,023,688, 9,029,173,        9,030,858, 9,117,749, 9,142,553, 9,219,005, 9,385,058,        9,406,670, 9,460,978, 9,509,313, 9,640,531, 9,691,760,        9,711,407, 9,721,927, 9,799,761, 9,871,034, 9,953,870,        9,953,994, 10,014,292, 10,014,318, 10,515,981, 10,892,016; and        pending U.S. Patent Application Publications and applications,        Ser. No. 14/642,724, Ser. No. 15/150,395, Ser. No. 15/173,686,        Ser. No. 16/337,665, Ser. No. 16/558,304, Ser. No. 16/649,660,        Ser. No. 16/836,659, Ser. No. 17/151,867, 62/651,722;        62/681,249, 62/713,345, 62/770,751, 62/952,222, 62/824,288,        63/075,067, 63/091,307, 63/115,000, 2020/0013791, Ser. No.        16/558,304; and PCT Applications (and Publications):        PCT/US2010/052093, PCT/US2011/042071 (WO2012/015550),        PCT/US2016/52726 (WO2017053329), PCT/US2017/052359        (WO2018/071143), PCT/US2018/016759 (WO2018144957), and        PCT/US2018/52332 (WO 2019/060798). The entire contents of the        foregoing patents, publications, and applications are        incorporated herein by reference.    -   In addition, the entire contents of U.S. Pat. Nos. 10,950,599,        10,840,222, 10,840,239, 10,658,358, 10,297,586, 10,014,292,        10,297,586, 9,640,531, U.S. patent application publication and        U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/169,511 and Ser. No.        14/642,724 are incorporated herein by reference.

Electro-Optics: There is also work done for integrated monolithic 3Dincluding layers of different crystals, such as U.S. Pat. Nos.8,283,215, 8,163,581, 8,753,913, 8,823,122, 9,197,804, 9,419,031,9,941,319, 10,679,977, and 10,943,934. The entire contents of theforegoing patents, publications, and applications are incorporatedherein by reference.

An early work on monolithic 3D was presented in U.S. Pat. No. 7,052,941and follow-on work in related patents includes U.S. Pat. No. 7,470,598.A technique which has been used over the last 20 years to build SOIwafers, called “Smart-Cut” or “Ion-Cut”, was presented in U.S. Pat. No.7,470,598 as one of the options to perform layer transfer for theformation of a monolithic 3D device. Yet in a related patent disclosure,by the same inventor of U.S. Pat. No. 7,470,598, U.S. application Ser.No. 12/618,542 it states: “In one embodiment of the previous art,exfoliating implant method in which ion-implanting Hydrogen into thewafer surface is known. But this exfoliating implant method can destroylattice structure of the doped layer 400 by heavy ion-implanting. Inthis case, to recover the destroyed lattice structure, a long timethermal treatment in very high temperature is required. This longtime/high temperature thermal treatment can severely deform the celldevices of the lower region.” Moreover, in U.S. application Ser. No.12/635,496 by the same inventor is stated:

Among the technologies to form the detaching layer, one of thewell-known technologies is Hydrogen Exfoliating Implant. This method hasa critical disadvantage which can destroy lattice structures of thesubstrate because it uses high amount of ion implantation. In order torecover the destroyed lattice structures, the substrate should be curedby heat treatment in very high temperature long time. This kind of hightemperature heat treatment can damage cell devices in the lowerregions.” Furthermore, in U.S. application Ser. No. 13/175,652 it isstated: “Among the technologies to form the detaching layer 207, onetechnology is called as exfoliating implant in which gas phase ions suchas hydrogen is implanted to form the detaching layer, but in thistechnology, the crystal lattice structure of the multiple doped layers201, 203, 205 can be damaged. In order to recover the crystal latticedamage, a thermal treatment under very high temperature and longtimeshould be performed, and this can strongly damage the cell devicesunderneath.” In fact the Inventor had posted a video infomercial on hiscorporate website, and was up-loaded on YouTube on Jun. 1, 2011, clearlystating in reference to the Smart Cut process: “The wafer bonding anddetaching method is well-known SOI or Semiconductor-On-Insulatortechnology. Compared to conventional bulk semiconductor substrates, SOIhas been introduced to increase transistor performance. However, it isnot designed for 3DIC either. Let me explain the reasons. . . . The doseof hydrogen is too high and, therefore, semiconductor crystallinelattices are demolished by the hydrogen ion bombardment during thehydrogen ion implantation. Therefore, typically annealing at more than1,100 Celsius is required for curing the lattice damage after waferdetaching. Such high temperature processing certainly destroysunderlying devices and interconnect layers. Without high temperatureannealing, the transferred layer should be the same as a highlydefective amorphous layer. It seems that there is no way to cure thelattice damage at low temperatures. BeSang has disruptive 3D layerformation technology and it enables formation of defect-free singlecrystalline semiconductor layer at low temperatures . . . ”

In at least one embodiment presented herein, at least one innovativemethod and device structure to repair the crystal lattice damage causedby the hydrogen implant is described.

Regardless of the technique used to construct 3D stacked integratedcircuits or chips, heat removal is a serious issue for this technology.For example, when a layer of circuits with power density P is stackedatop another layer with power density P, the net power density is 2P.Removing the heat produced due to this power density is a significantchallenge. In addition, many heat producing regions in 3D stackedintegrated circuits or chips have a high thermal resistance to the heatsink, and this makes heat removal even more difficult.

Several solutions have been proposed to tackle this issue of heatremoval in 3D stacked integrated circuits and chips. These are describedin the following paragraphs.

Publications have suggested passing liquid coolant through multipledevice layers of a 3D-IC to remove heat. This is described in“Microchannel Cooled 3D Integrated Systems”, Proc. Intl. InterconnectTechnology Conference, 2008 by D. C. Sekar, et al., and “ForcedConvective Interlayer Cooling in Vertically Integrated Packages,” Proc.Intersoc. Conference on Thermal Management (ITHERM), 2008 by T.Brunschweiler, et al. and “High Performance Heat Sinking for VLSI,” IEEEElectron Device Letters, vol. EDL-2, No. 5, May 1981, by D. B. Tuckermanand R. F. W. Pease.

Thermal vias have been suggested as techniques to transfer heat fromstacked device layers to the heat sink. Use of power and ground vias forthermal conduction in 3D-ICs has also been suggested. These techniquesare described in “Allocating Power Ground Vias in 3DICs for SimultaneousPower and Thermal Integrity” ACM Transactions on Design Automation ofElectronic Systems (TODAES), May 2009 by Hao Yu, Joanna Ho and Lei He.

In addition, thermal limitations during IC fabrication have been a bigobstacle on the road to monolithic three-dimensional ICs. Thesemiconductor and microelectronic processing techniques to formtransistors, circuits, and devices, for example to form some siliconoxides or nitrides, repair damages from processes such as etching andion-implantation, annealing and activation of ion implanted species, andepitaxial regrow techniques, have processing temperatures (for example,greater than 400° C.) and times at temperature that would damage andharm the underlying metallization and/or device layers and structures.These processes may involve transient (short timescales, such as lessthan 500 ns short wavelength laser pulses) heat exposures to the waferbeing processed, or steady state applications (such as RTA, RTO, spike,flash, CVD, ALD) of heat and/or heated material or gases that may haveprocessing times of seconds, minutes, or hours.

Techniques to remove heat from 3D Integrated Circuits and Chips andprotect sensitive metallization and circuit elements from either theheat of processing of the 3D layers or the operationally generated heatfrom an active circuit, will be beneficial.

Additionally the 3D technology according to some embodiments of theinvention may enable some very innovative IC devices alternatives withreduced development costs, novel and simpler process flows, increasedyield, and other illustrative benefits.

SUMMARY

The invention may be directed to multilayer or Three DimensionalIntegrated Circuit (3DIC) devices and fabrication methods.

In one aspect, a 3D semiconductor device, the device comprising: a firstlevel, wherein said first level comprises a first layer, said firstlayer comprising first transistors, and wherein said first levelcomprises a second layer, said second layer comprising firstinterconnections; a second level overlaying said first level, whereinsaid second level comprises a third layer, said third layer comprisingsecond transistors, and wherein said second level comprises a fourthlayer, said fourth layer comprising second interconnections; and aplurality of connection paths, wherein said plurality of connectionpaths provides connections from a plurality of said first transistors toa plurality of said second transistors, wherein said second level isbonded to said first level, wherein said bonded comprises oxide to oxidebond regions, wherein said bonded comprises metal to metal bond regions,and wherein said second level comprises at least one voltage regulator.

In another aspect, a 3D semiconductor device, the device comprising: afirst level, wherein said first level comprises a first layer, saidfirst layer comprising first transistors, and wherein said first levelcomprises a second layer, said second layer comprising firstinterconnections; a second level overlaying said first level, whereinsaid second level comprises a third layer, said third layer comprisingsecond transistors, and wherein said second level comprises a fourthlayer, said fourth layer comprising second interconnections; a pluralityof connection paths, wherein said plurality of connection paths providesconnections from a plurality of said first transistors to a plurality ofsaid second transistors, wherein said second level is bonded to saidfirst level, wherein said bonded comprises oxide to oxide bond regions,wherein said bonded comprises metal to metal bond regions, wherein saidsecond level comprises at least one memory array, and wherein said thirdlayer comprises crystalline silicon; and a heat removal path from saidthird level to an external surface of said device.

In another aspect, a 3D semiconductor device, the device comprising: afirst level, wherein said first level comprises a first layer, saidfirst layer comprising first transistors, and wherein said first levelcomprises a second layer, said second layer comprising firstinterconnections; a second level overlaying said first level, whereinsaid second level comprises a third layer, said third layer comprisingsecond transistors, and wherein said second level comprises a fourthlayer, said fourth layer comprising second interconnections; and aplurality of connection paths, wherein said plurality of connectionpaths provides connections from a plurality of said first transistors toa plurality of said second transistors, wherein said second level isbonded to said first level, wherein said bonded comprises oxide to oxidebond regions, wherein said bonded comprises metal to metal bond regions,and wherein said second level comprises at least one charge pumpcircuit.

In another aspect, a 3D semiconductor device, the device comprising: afirst level, wherein said first level comprises a first layer, saidfirst layer comprising first transistors, and wherein said first levelcomprises a second layer, said second layer comprising firstinterconnections; a second level overlaying said first level, whereinsaid second level comprises a third layer, said third layer comprisingsecond transistors, and wherein said second level comprises a fourthlayer, said fourth layer comprising second interconnections; and aplurality of connection paths, wherein said plurality of connectionpaths provides connections from a plurality of said first transistors toa plurality of said second transistors, wherein said second level isbonded to said first level, wherein said bonded comprises oxide to oxidebond regions, wherein said bonded comprises metal to metal bond regions,wherein said second level comprises at least one memory array, whereinsaid first level comprises a first die area, wherein said first levelcomprises a first clock tree, wherein said second level comprises asecond clock tree, wherein at least one of said connection pathscomprises connecting between said first clock tree and said second clocktree, and wherein said third layer comprises crystalline silicon.

In another aspect, a 3D semiconductor device, the device comprising: afirst level, wherein said first level comprises a first layer, saidfirst layer comprising first transistors, and wherein said first levelcomprises a second layer, said second layer comprising firstinterconnections; a second level overlaying said first level, whereinsaid second level comprises a third layer, said third layer comprisingsecond transistors, and wherein said second level comprises a fourthlayer, said fourth layer comprising second interconnections; and aplurality of connection paths, wherein said plurality of connectionpaths provides connections from a plurality of said first transistors toa plurality of said second transistors, wherein said second level isbonded to said first level, wherein said bonded comprises oxide to oxidebond regions, wherein said bonded comprises metal to metal bond regions,wherein said second level comprises at least one area I/O.

In another aspect, a 3D semiconductor device, the device comprising: afirst level, wherein said first level comprises a first layer, saidfirst layer comprising first transistors, and wherein said first levelcomprises a second layer, said second layer comprising firstinterconnections; a second level overlaying said first level, whereinsaid second level comprises a third layer, said third layer comprisingsecond transistors, and wherein said second level comprises a fourthlayer, said fourth layer comprising second interconnections; and aplurality of connection paths, wherein said plurality of connectionpaths provides connections from a plurality of said first transistors toa plurality of said second transistors, wherein said second level isbonded to said first level, wherein said bonded comprises oxide to oxidebond regions, wherein said bonded comprises metal to metal bond regions,wherein said second level comprises at least one memory array, whereinsaid third layer comprises crystalline silicon, and wherein said secondlevel comprises at least one Phase Lock Loop (PLL) circuit.

In another aspect, a 3D semiconductor device, the device comprising: afirst level, wherein said first level comprises a first layer, saidfirst layer comprising first transistors, and wherein said first levelcomprises a second layer, said second layer comprising firstinterconnections; a second level overlaying said first level, whereinsaid second level comprises a third layer, said third layer comprisingsecond transistors, and wherein said second level comprises a fourthlayer, said fourth layer comprising second interconnections; and aplurality of connection paths, wherein said plurality of connectionpaths provides connections from a plurality of said first transistors toa plurality of said second transistors, wherein said second level isbonded to said first level, wherein said bonded comprises oxide to oxidebond regions, wherein said bonded comprises metal to metal bond regions,wherein said second level comprises at least one memory array, whereinsaid first level comprises a first die area, wherein said first levelcomprises a first scan chain, wherein said second level comprises asecond scan chain, wherein at least one of said connection pathscomprises connecting between said first scan chain and said second scanchain, and wherein said third layer comprises crystalline silicon.

In another aspect, a 3D semiconductor device, the device comprising: afirst level, wherein said first level comprises a first layer, saidfirst layer comprising first transistors, and wherein said first levelcomprises a second layer, said second layer comprising firstinterconnections; a second level overlaying said first level, whereinsaid second level comprises a third layer, said third layer comprisingsecond transistors, and wherein said second level comprises a fourthlayer, said fourth layer comprising second interconnections; a pluralityof connection paths, wherein said plurality of connection paths providesconnections from a plurality of said first transistors to a plurality ofsaid second transistors, wherein said second level is bonded to saidfirst level, wherein said bonded comprises oxide to oxide bond regions,wherein said bonded comprises metal to metal bond regions, wherein saidsecond level comprises at least one memory array, wherein said thirdlayer comprises crystalline silicon; and wherein said second levelcomprises at least one SerDes circuit.

In another aspect, a 3D semiconductor device, the device comprising: afirst level, wherein said first level comprises a first layer, saidfirst layer comprising first transistors, and wherein said first levelcomprises a second layer, said second layer comprising firstinterconnections; a second level overlaying said first level, whereinsaid second level comprises a third layer, said third layer comprisingsecond transistors, and wherein said second level comprises a fourthlayer, said fourth layer comprising second interconnections; and aplurality of connection paths, wherein said plurality of connectionpaths provides connections from a plurality of said first transistors toa plurality of said second transistors, wherein said second level isbonded to said first level, wherein said bonded comprises oxide to oxidebond regions, wherein said bonded comprises metal to metal bond regions,wherein said second level comprises at least one memory array, whereinsaid third layer comprises crystalline silicon, and wherein said secondlevel comprises at least one oscillator circuit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments of the invention will be understood and appreciatedmore fully from the following detailed description, taken in conjunctionwith the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an exemplary illustration of embodiments and combinations ofdevices, circuits, paths, and connections of a 3D device;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary illustration of a 3D platform;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary illustration of a flowchart of a system that usesa processor and at least one bus;

FIG. 4A illustrates an exemplary partitioned 3D system/device;

FIG. 4B is an exemplary illustration of a flowchart of partitioninglogic units onto at least two stratums;

FIG. 5A is an exemplary illustration of different Clock distributionnetwork styles;

FIGS. 5B and 5C illustrate exemplary 3D system/device clock distributionnetworks;

FIGS. 6A-6G are exemplary illustrations of an n-channel FD-MOSFET withintegrated TRL (Trap Rich Layer) device and process flow;

FIGS. 7A-7E are exemplary illustrations of an additional n-channelFD-MOSFET with integrated TRL (Trap Rich Layer) device and process flow;

FIG. 8 is an exemplary illustration of an ELTRAN based donor wafer witha multi-layered porous structure ready provided as a substrate for astandard processing flow;

FIGS. 9A-9B is an exemplary illustration of an ELTRAN based donor waferafter front line processing to construct transistors and flow;

FIGS. 10A-10D is an exemplary illustration of an ELTRAN based donorwafer after front line processing to construct transistors be preparedby adding contacts and at least a first metal for transfer onto a targetwafer, and flow;

FIGS. 11A-11E is an exemplary illustration of an ELTRAN based donorwafer after front line processing to construct transistors then transferthe donor layer first to a carrier wafer and then from the carrier waferto the target wafer;

FIGS. 12A-12E is an exemplary illustration of an ELTRAN based donorwafer after front line processing to construct dual strata transistorsand make the carrier wafer more resistive to an undesired split whilethe donor wafer is being split off;

FIGS. 13A-13O is an exemplary illustration of an alternative poroussilicon based donor wafer after front line processing to construct dualstrata transistors;

FIG. 14 is an illustration referring to Back Bias (BB) for Ultra-ThinBody (UTBB) FD-SOI (Fully Depleted Silicon on Insulator);

FIGS. 15A-15B, 15B-1, 15C-15D is an exemplary illustration of analternative porous silicon based donor wafer structure;

FIGS. 16A-16F is an exemplary illustration of an alternative flowutilizing a donor wafer structure to construct 3DICs;

FIG. 17 is an exemplary illustration of an alternative flow utilizing adonor wafer structure to construct 3DICs with a final carrier;

FIGS. 18A-18C is an exemplary illustration of an alternative flowutilizing a donor wafer structure to construct 3DICs with a finalcarrier where a multiple strata structure could be transferred to afunctional final carrier or final substrate;

FIGS. 19A-19C is an exemplary illustration of an alternative flowutilizing a donor wafer structure to construct programmable logic 3DICs;

FIG. 20 is an exemplary illustration of an exemplary wafer structure3700 for porous silicon based processes;

FIGS. 21A and 21B are exemplary illustrations of sidewall protectionschemes for porous layers;

FIGS. 22A and 22B are exemplary illustrations of additional sidewallprotection schemes for porous layers;

FIGS. 23A and 23B are exemplary illustrations of additional sidewallprotection schemes for porous layers;

FIGS. 24A-24C are exemplary illustrations of forming multilayer porousstructures;

FIG. 25 is an exemplary illustration of a multi strata FPGA;

FIG. 26 is an illustration referring to an alternative technique forporous layer cut;

FIGS. 27A and 27B are exemplary illustrations of picking and placingdies;

FIGS. 28A-28C are exemplary illustrations of picking dies and placingthem into a carrier wafer and then move the carrier wafer onto a targetwafer; and

FIG. 29 illustrates a flowchart of partitioning a design into twodisparate target technologies based on timing requirements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An embodiment of the invention is now described with reference to thedrawing figures. Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciatethat the description and figures illustrate rather than limit theinvention and that in general the figures are not drawn to scale forclarity of presentation. Such skilled persons will also realize thatmany more embodiments are possible by applying the inventive principlescontained herein and that such embodiments fall within the scope of theinvention which is not to be limited except by the appended claims.

Some drawing figures may describe process flows for building devices.The process flows, which may be a sequence of steps for building adevice, may have many structures, numerals and labels that may be commonbetween two or more adjacent steps. In such cases, some labels, numeralsand structures used for a certain step's figure may have been describedin the previous steps' figures.

Some monolithic 3D approaches are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,273,610,8,557,632, 8,298,875, 8,557,632, 8,163,581, 8,378,715, 8,379,458,8,450,804, 8,574,929, 8,581,349, 8,687,399, 8,742,476, 8,674,470,8,994,404, 9,023,688, 9,219,005, 9,385,058, 9,640,531. The entirecontents of the foregoing patents are incorporated herein by reference.

Defect annealing, such as furnace thermal or optical annealing, of thinlayers of the crystalline materials generally included in 3D-ICs to thetemperatures that may lead to substantial dopant activation or defectanneal, for example above 600° C., may damage or melt the underlyingmetal interconnect layers of the stacked 3D-IC, such as copper oraluminum interconnect layers. An embodiment of the invention is to form3D-IC structures and devices wherein a heat spreading, heat conductingand/or optically reflecting or absorbent material layer or layers (whichmay be called a shield) is incorporated between the sensitive metalinterconnect layers and the layer or regions being optically irradiatedand annealed, or annealed from the top of the 3D-IC stack using othermethods. An exemplary generalized process flow is shown in FIGS. 33A-Fof incorporated patent reference U.S. Pat. No. 8,574,929. An exemplaryprocess flow for an FD-RCAT with an optional integrated heatshield/spreader is shown in FIGS. 34A-G of incorporated patent referenceU.S. Pat. No. 8,574,929. An exemplary process flow for a FD-MOSFET withan optional integrated heat shield/spreader is shown in FIGS. 45A-G ofincorporated patent reference U.S. Pat. No. 8,574,929. An exemplaryprocess flow for a planar fully depleted n-channel MOSFET (FD-MOSFET)with an optional integrated heat shield/spreader and back planes andbody bias taps is shown in FIGS. 46A-G of incorporated patent referenceU.S. Pat. No. 8,574,929. An exemplary process flow for a horizontallyoriented JFET or JLT with an optional integrated heat shield/spreader isshown in FIGS. 47A-G of incorporated patent reference U.S. Pat. No.8,574,929. An alternate method to construct a planar fully depletedundoped channel MOSFET (FD-MOSFET) with an optional integrated heatshield/spreader and back planes and body bias taps suitable for amonolithic 3DIC is shown in FIGS. 5A-5F of parent US 2017/0207214. The3D-ICs may be constructed in a 3D stacked layer using proceduresoutlined herein and such as, for example, FIGS. 39, 40, 41 ofincorporated patent reference U.S. Pat. No. 8,574,929 and in otherincorporated references. The topside defect anneal may include opticalannealing to repair defects in the crystalline 3D-IC layers and regions(which may be caused by the ion-cut implantation process), and may beutilized to activate semiconductor dopants in the crystalline layers orregions of a 3D-IC, such as, for example, LDD, halo, source/drainimplants. The 3D-IC may include, for example, stacks formed in amonolithic manner with thin layers or stacks and vertical connectionsuch as TLVs, and stacks formed in an assembly manner with thick (>2 um)layers or stacks and vertical connections such as TSVs. Opticalannealing beams or systems, such as, for example, a laser-spike annealbeam from a commercial semiconductor material oriented single ordual-beam continuous wave (CW) laser spike anneal DB-LSA system ofUltratech Inc., San Jose, Calif., USA (10.6 um laser wavelength), or ashort pulse laser (such as 160 ns), with 308 nm wavelength, and largearea (die or step-field sized, including 1 cm²) irradiation such asoffered by Excico of Gennevilliers, France, may be utilized (forexample, see Huet, K., “Ultra Low Thermal Budget Laser Thermal Annealingfor 3D Semiconductor and Photovoltaic Applications,” NCCAVS 2012Junction Technology Group, Semicon West, San Francisco, Jul. 12, 2012).Additionally, the defect anneal may include, for example, laser anneals(such as suggested in Rajendran, B., “Sequential 3DIC Fabrication:Challenges and Prospects”, Proceedings of VLSI Multi Level InterconnectConference 2006, pp. 57-64), Ultrasound Treatments (UST), megasonictreatments, and/or microwave treatments. The topside defect annealambient may include, for example, vacuum, high pressure (greater thanabout 760 torr), oxidizing atmospheres (such as oxygen or partialpressure oxygen), and/or neutral/reducing atmospheres (such as nitrogenor argon or hydrogen). The topside defect anneal may includetemperatures of the layer being annealed above about 400° C. (a hightemperature thermal anneal), including, for example, 600° C., 800° C.,900° C., 1000° C., 1050° C., 1100° C. and/or 1120° C., and the sensitivemetal interconnect (for example, may be copper or aluminum containing)and/or device layers below may not be damaged by the annealing process,for example, which may include sustained temperatures that do not exceed200° C., exceed 300° C., exceed 370° C., or exceed 400° C. As understoodby those of ordinary skill in the art, short-timescale (nanosceonds tomiliseconds) temperatures above 400° C. may also be acceptable fordamage avoidance, depending on the acceptor layer interconnect metalsystems used. The topside defect anneal may include activation ofsemiconductor dopants, such as, for example, ion implanted dopants orPLAD applied dopants. It will also be understood by one of ordinaryskill in the art that the methods, such as the heat sink/shield layerand/or use of short pulse and short wavelength optical anneals, mayallow almost any type of transistor, for example, such as FinFets,bipolar, nanowire transistors, to be constructed in a monolithic 3Dfashion as the thermal limit of damage to the underlying metalinterconnect systems is overcome. Moreover, multiple pulses of thelaser, other optical annealing techniques, or other anneal treatmentssuch as microwave, may be utilized to improve the anneal, activation,and yield of the process. The transistors formed as described herein mayinclude many types of materials; for example, the channel and/or sourceand drain may include single crystal materials such as silicon,germanium, or compound semiconductors such as GaAs, InP, GaN, SiGe, andalthough the structures may be doped with the tailored dopants andconcentrations, they may still be substantially crystalline ormono-crystalline. The transistors in a first layer of transistors mayinclude a substantially different channel and/or source/drain materialthan the second layer of transistors. For example, the first layer oftransistors may include silicon-based transistor channels and the secondlayer of transistors may include a germanium based transistor channels.

The various layers of a 3D device may include many types of circuitry,which may be formed by regions of transistors and other semiconductordevice elements within that layer or in combination with other layers ofthe 3D device, and connections between the transistors within the sameregion, region to region and vertically (layer to layer. stratum tostratum) may be provided by layers of interconnect metallization andvertical connections such as TLVs and TSVs. In addition, power routingwithin the 3D device may utilize thicker and/or wider (more conductive)interconnect metallization than another layer, especially if the layeris closest to the source of external power and/or has a greater currentload/supply requirement. Many individual device and interconnectembodiments for 3D devices have been described herein and in theincorporated patent references. As illustrated in FIG. 1 herein, someadditional embodments and combinations of devices, circuits, paths, andconnections are described and may utilize similar materials,constructions and methods as the incorporated references or discussedherein. With reference to embodiments described, for example, hereinand, with respect to FIG. 46 of incorporated reference U.S. Pat. No.8,574,929, and in the disclosures of many of the other incorporatedpatent references, a substrate layer, which may have a thicker body thanother semiconductor layers above or within the 3D device, such asacceptor 610, may be formed and may include heat sink 697, acceptorsubstrate 695, acceptor wafer transistors and circuits 693, first(acceptor) layer metal interconnect 681 which may include first layercontacts 691, first layer vias 683, at least one shield layer/region 688(two layers and many regions, such as lower level shield layer region685, shown), interconnect insulator regions 696 and ESD diode structures607. A second semiconductor layer may be transferred and constructed ontop of the first layer with isolation layer 680 in-between and verticallayer to layer interconnections may be provided by TLV/TSV 635, only oneis shown. A layer of transistors and circuits 622 may include secondlayer input device structures 676, FD ESD structures 617, Phase LockLoop circuits PLL 618, SERDES circuitry 619, and output device structure651. Second interconnections layer 630 may include at least onelayer/regions of metallization and associated contacts and via, forexample, second layer metallization M1 segments 628, 621, 623, 625,second layer contacts 626, second layer vias 652, and conductive pads690. The 3D device may be connected to external devices utilizing manystructures known to those of ordinary skill in the art, for example,bond wires 699. Input device structures 676 and output device structure651 may be connected to external devices through, for example, secondlayer contacts 626, second layer metallization M1 segments 628, secondlayer vias 652, conductive pads 690, and bond wires 699. A portion ofthe transistors within input device structures 676 and output devicestructure 651 may be larger in either or both width and length than mosttransistors within acceptor wafer transistors and circuits 693, and mayhave a different gate oxide, in thickness and/or composition. Inputdevice structures 676 (and output device structure 651) may be subjectedto voltage and/or current transients from external devices or generatedexternally and traveling to the 3D device along bond wires 699. Inputdevice structures 676 (and output device structure 651) may be protectedby dissipating the transient energy in diode structures, such as ESDdiode structures 607 on the relatively thicker (than for example, thesecond semiconductor layer) acceptor substrate 695, which may beconnected by a multiplicity of connection stacks such as first(acceptor) layer metal interconnect 681 which may include first layercontacts 691, first layer vias 683, at least one shield layer/region688, TLV/TSV 635, and second layer metallization M1 segments 628. Inputdevice structures 676 (and output device structure 651) may be protectedby dissipating the transient energy in a transient filtering circuitrysuch as for example, FD ESD structures 617, which may reside on arelatively thin semiconductor layer in the 3D device and may effectivelyutilize fully depleted transistors in the filter circuitry. FD ESDstructures 617 may be coupled to input device structures 676 (and outputdevice structure 651) by second layer interconnections (not shown).Input device structures 676 may be connected to PLL 618, for example,thru second layer metallization M1 segment 621 and second layer contacts626. Input device structures 676 may be connected to SERDES circuitry619, for example, thru second layer metallization (not shown). Amonolithic 3D stack, wherein at least one of the layers in the stack isvery thin (less than about 200 nm), may provide an unexpected benefit.The thicker substrate may be used for energy dissipating diodes tohandle large energy transients and the thin (‘second’ or ‘third’ etc.)layer may be used for a high frequency switching capability to protectagainst a high frequency transient on the input lines. This may be donesimultaneously on an I/O. Furthermore, one style could be chosen forspecific I/Os as well. The monolithic 3D structure (thin/thick) alsoprovides a low capacitance drive output and very fast input devicestructure (‘fully depleted’ transistors), yet still be protected fromhigh energy transients that could be dissipated in the bulk (firstlayer). This ‘two-tier’ ESD structure invention could also provide costeffective I/Os anywhere throughout the area of the device, as the largersized (area-wise) diodes could be placed underneath the second layerinput transistors. This would also provide a closer than 2D layoutcoupling of the I/O to the other chip circuitry, as the large energydissipating diodes are not on the same level as the circuitry proper,and would not interfere with the data circuitry operation (noise).Output device structures 651 may be connected to SERDES circuitry 619,for example, thru second layer metallization M1 segment 623 and secondlayer contacts 626. Output device structures 651 may drive signals thruthe connection to conductive pads 690 and then out to external devicesthru bond wires 699. Transistors within a lower layer, for examplewithin acceptor wafer transistors and circuits 693, may be connected(not shown) to the output device structure 651 and drive a signal to theoutput device structure 651, and a portion of the transistors of outputdevice structure 651 may have a larger width and/or length than thetransistors within acceptor wafer transistors and circuits 693. Powerfrom external sources may be routed thru bond wires 699 to conductivepads 690 to the 3D device, wherein at least a portion of the secondinterconnections layer 630 may be constructed with thicker and/or widermetallization wiring (for example 4X wiring as described in incorporatedpatent references) so to provide the higher current carrying capabilityrequired for the second layer power distribution grid/network than thatof the lower layer, in this example, first layer metallization wiring(for example 1X or 2X wiring as described in incorporated patentreferences). The width and/or length of the transistors of the secondlayer of transistors and circuits 622, for example a portion of those insecond layer input device structures 676 and/or FD ESD structures 617and/or output device structures 651, may be substantially larger thanthe width and/or length of transistors in acceptor wafer transistors andcircuits 693. Local ESD clamps or triggering elements may be constructedwith the bulk or FD devices, and the FD (UTBB) devices may beband-modulation devices such as the FED (Field Effect Diode), Z²-FET(Zero impact ionization and Zero sub-threshold swing) or BBCT(SOI-BackBiasControlled-Thyristor). One example in 2D may be found in Y.Solaro, et al., “Innovative ESD protections for UTBB FD-SOI Technology,”IEEE IEDM 2013, paper 7.3, the contents fully incorporated herein byreference. The back-gate/bias plane may be accomplished with anintegrated device, for example, a back-channel region 522 or by a baselayer (or layer below) top metal plate/line (for example, such as thetopmost shield layer/region 688) in a monolithic 3D configuration. In amonolithic 3D configuration as disclosed herein and in the incorporatedreferences, the layers above the base/substrate layer are naturallyconstructed SOI, wherein the above techniques to create the back gatecontrolled ESD structures may be accomplished without the complexity of2D processing of the buried layers and connections. Design of the ESDprotection for, for example, a single-pole multiple throw (SPMT) Tx/Rxswitch for multi-mode smart phones, may include a series shunt topologywhere each path has a series branch to the antenna and a shunt branch toground (one example in 2D may be found in X. S. Wang, et al. IEEE S3SConference 2013 paper “Concurrent Design Analysis of A 8500V ESDprotected SP10T Switch in SOI CMOS,” the contents fully incorporatedherein by reference. Feed-forward capacitors (FFCs) may be used to keepan even distribution of AC voltage drops across the shunt branches. TheFFCs may be constructed in the same layer as the shunts (preferably anRF optimized layer), the layer below or the layer above. This allowsflexibility in type, value, and/or the ability to adjust (hard wired,electrically programmable, or top-layer laser/e-fuse programmable) eachof the shunts effective FFC value.

Conductive pads 690 and associated I/O circuits and any redistributionlayers may be arranged and lay-ed out in many configurations. Forexample, conductive pads 690 may be designed and lay-ed out as aperimeter bond pad grouping or as an array I/O wherein the conductivebond pads may be arrayed throughout the area of the die when viewed fromabove or below. Conductive pads 690, whether arrayed in area orperimeter, may include the associated I/O and/or ESD circuitrypositioned vertically below (or above for ‘backside pads’) theconductive pads and on the same layer/stratum, vertically below (orabove for ‘backside pads’) on a layer/stratum not the same as theconductive pad layer/stratum, or not vertically below (or above for‘backside pads’) the conductive pad, yet on the same layer/stratum asthe conductive pads 690 or on a layer/stratum not the samelayer/stratum. Array packages may include the PGA, BGA, FBGA, Fan-inQFN, and Fan-out WLPs and may utilize attachments such as solder ballsor columns.

Stress relief from wire bonding, ball bonding, column attaching may bemitigated in the 3DIC stack. For example, conductive bond pad 690 may bereplicated in full or in part down one or more layers/stratum directlybelow, and this ‘stack of bond pads’ may extend to the substrate 695.Bonding stresses may be mitigated by forming a relatively soft layer orregion underneath conductive bond pads 690, for example a low-kdielectric and/or an aero-gel. In addition, a region or layer of aconductive aerogel may be formed underneath conductive pad 690 thatwould allow at least a one-time crush and still maintain conductivityand reliability. A combination of a hard layer and then a soft layer mayalso be employed below conductive pads 690. Young's modulus may be ameasure of soft and hard. A MEMS structure, for example a torsion springassembly, may be formed directly underneath the bonding area ofconductive pad 690.

Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that theillustrations in FIG. 1 are exemplary and are not drawn to scale. Suchskilled persons will further appreciate that many variations may bepossible such as, for example, a thick enough semiconductor layer toenable ESD diode style protection circuitry to be constructed need notonly be on the base or substrate layer, but may reside elsewhere in the3D device stack. Moreover, the output circuitry including output devicestructures 651 may wholly or partially reside on a semiconductortransistor layer that is not on top, and vertical connections includingTLVs/TSV may be utilized to connect the output device structures 651 toconductive pads 690. Furthermore, the input circuitry including inputdevice structures 676 may wholly or partially reside on a semiconductortransistor layer that is not on top, and vertical connections includingTLVs/TSV may be utilized to connect the input device structures 676 toconductive pads 690. Similarly, SERDES circuitry and 619 PLL 618 maywholly or partially reside on a semiconductor transistor layer that isnot on top, these choices being one of design choice and devicecharacteristics driven. Furthermore, connection to external devices(signal and/or power supply) may be made on the backside of acceptorsubstrate 695. Moreover, connection to external devices form the 3Ddevice may utilize many types of structures other than bond wires 699shown in the illustration, for example, flipchip and bumps, and/orwireless circuitry. Thus the invention is to be limited only by theappended claims.

A 3D system, such as has been described herein and in relation to atleast FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 of incorporated reference U.S. Pat. No.8,378,715, is not limited to a configurable system and could be used inother types of platform configurations. The strata of such a 3D systemcould be connected by TSV and might use an interposer or be directlyplaced one on top of the other. Also the strata might be connected bywhat has been called in this application and the patents, publications,and applications that are incorporated by reference, through layer via(“TLV”) where the layer carrying the transistor may be thin (below about2 micron or below about 100nm in thickness or below about 30 nm inthickness).

FIG. 2 illustrates a 3D platform constructed accordingly. Platform base701 could be the same type of stratum, for example, a Phone Processor,which may be overlaid by and connected to a second stratum 712, forexample, a memory stratum. This platform could be produced in highvolume and could be stocked in wafer form or die form. A market specific3D system could be constructed by overlaying and connecting to theplatform (formed by platform base 701 and second stratum 712), a thirdstratum which maybe designed and manufactured for a specific market, forexample, a Radio for US 702, a Radio for Europe 704 or a Radio for China706. The system could be constructed of stratum on top of a stratuminterconnected by TSV or TLV or side by side wiring using, what is nowcalled by the industry, interposers. There are many advantages for sucha 3D platform, including reduced cost of the common element design,reduced cost of volume manufacturing, and shorter time to market and tovolume for any new specific market that need only few, and ideally onlyone, customized stratum and the remainder of the system a similar set ofstratums.

Additional embodiment for a 3D platform is to use a variation of stratawhich might include in some platforms a single stratum of memory and inanother platform two strata of memory offering a larger memory. Anothervariation could use a different amount of programmable logic rangingfrom no programmable logic to multiple strata of programmable logic.Another variation could add special system input/output resourcesranging from no SERDES to one or more strata of I/O (Input Output) thatmay include various amounts of SERDES enabled I/O.

While the previous discussion described how an existing powerdistribution network or structure could be designed/formed and they cantransfer heat efficiently from logic/memory cells or gates in 3D-ICs totheir heat sink, many techniques to enhance this heat transfercapability will be described herein and in at least incorporatereference U.S. Pat. No. 8,803,206. Many embodiments of the invention canprovide several benefits, including lower thermal resistance and theability to cool higher power 3D-ICs. As well, thermal contacts mayprovide mechanical stability and structural strength to low-k Back EndOf Line (BEOL) structures, which may need to accommodate shear forces,such as from CMP and/or cleaving processes. The heat transfer capabilityenhancement techniques may be useful and applied to differentmethodologies and implementations of 3D-ICs, including monolithic 3D-ICsand TSV-based 3D-ICs. The heat removal apparatus employed, which mayinclude heat sinks and heat spreaders, may include an external surfacefrom which heat transfer may take place by methods such as air cooling,liquid cooling, or attachment to another heat sink or heat spreaderstructure

In 3D systems, a portion of the layers/strata might be dedicated tomemory and a portion to logic. The memory layer could include varioustype of memory such SRAM, DRAM, Floating Body RAM, R-RAM and Flashtypes. The memory layer might include the memory control circuits andmemory peripheral circuits or those could be in a layer above or belowthe memory layer. The memory could be constructed on a single layer ormight include two or more layers. An effective option could be to usetwo or more layers of memories utilizing an architecture such as havebeen presented in the incorporated by reference patents, publications,and applications, wherein a lithography step may be used to pattern twoor more layers together, thus reducing the overall cost by sharing thecostly step of lithography across two or more layers. Some memory layerscould be dedicated to a single type of memory or to mix of various typesof memory. For example, a compute layer may be supported by multiplelayers of memory processed with lithography that is shared across thesemultiple layers, and where these layers may include non-volatile memoryto hold the program and volatile memory to hold data.

An attractive advantage of having the memory decoders and logic abovethe memory layer wherein the memory layer may be an array of bit cells,relates to an option of pre-patterning the transferred layer prior tothe layer transfer. In such a case many high temperature steps could beperformed on that layer before the layer transfer, such as formingtrench isolation or even full transistors as has been presented in atleast U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610 and before in relation to FIG. 19 ofincorporated reference U.S. Pat. No. 8,378,715. Accordingly atransferred layer misalignment could be reduced when the transfer layeris patterned with a repeating pattern. The same concept could beinverted, with a non-repeating layer transferred on top of a repeatingone. Accordingly, the alignment error could be reduced to about the sizeof the repeating element, the bit cell. This approach is similar to themethod presented in relation to FIG. 19 of incorporated reference U.S.Pat. No. 8,378,715, except that in this case the shift to compensate forthe misalignment may be done in respect to the bit-cell array. Thisapproach will require a relatively larger window to be etched so therequired memory could be sized through the overlaying transferred layerand then a connection to the bit lines and word lines could be made byincluding large enough landing zones/strips to connect to them.

In such way a single expensive mask set can be used to build many wafersfor different memory sizes and finished through another mask set that isused to build many logic wafers that can be customized by few metallayers.

Many devices may have at least one processor on chip and often more thanone. In most cases these processors use at least one bus to commonlycommunicate with multiple sub systems such as memory and peripherals.FIG. 3 is a drawing illustration of an exemplary system that uses aprocessor such as, for example, ARM processor 1001 that is connecteddirectly with cache memory 1003 and using a bus 1002 to connect to atleast two sub-systems, such as, for example, Hardware Acceleration 1004and graphic controller 1006. Bus 1002 could be used by a secondprocessing unit such as DSP 1008 to connect to other elements in theoverall system. Such a system could also include additional secondarybus 1012 to manage the connection of peripheral units such as, forexample, USB Controller 1014 and Digitizer 1016. In many cases a designobjective may be to achieve a higher speed of processor operation or toreduce power by making the lines constructing the bus shorter. In a 3Dsystem such objective might be achieved, for example, by properlysplitting/partitioning the subsystems connecting to the bus 1002 betweenthe stratum the processor 1001 is on and another stratum that is eitherabove it or below it. (See, for example, FIG. 4A, an exemplary 3Dsystem/device 1100 with exemplary elements, such as, a processor suchas, for example, ARM processor 1001, cache memory 1003, a portion of bus1002 located on the first stratum, Hardware Acceleration 1004, DSP 1008,on-chip memory, graphic controller 1006, and a portion of bus 1002located on the second stratum which may be connected to the portion ofbus 1002 located on the first stratum utilizing TLVs 1190). Anotherobjective related to such splitting/partitioning relates to the factthat some of the units, for example, graphic controller 1006, USBController 1014 and Digitizer 1016, have at least one (typically many)connection to external devices, and it may be desired to place thoseparticular logic units on the strata closer to the connection to theexternal devices, which in some cases might be the top-most stratum.Many types of buses may be utilized in a 3D system, such as, forexample, an Advanced Microcontroller Bus Architecture (AMBA) bus, aCoreConnect bus, a STBus, a Wishbone bus, an Open Core Protocol (OCP)bus, or a Virtual Component Interface (VCI) bus.

As illustrated in FIG. 4B, one such splitting/partitioning approachcould suggest first placing the logic units that are connected to thebus and have an external connection on the upper stratum. Then, if thetotal area of these units is less than half of the total area of all theunits connected to that bus, start assigning units to the lower stratumfrom the bigger units to the smaller until the area of those assigned tothe lower stratum just exceeds the area of those logic units assigned tothe upper stratum. Then assign the biggest un-assigned unit to the uppertier and repeat. If the total area of these units (those units firstassigned to the upper stratum) is greater than half of the total area ofall the units connected to that bus, then move the unit with the leastnumber of external connections may be moved to the lower stratum(outside if possible for potentially better connectivity), and repeat ifnecessary to bring the upper stratum assigned area to just below 50% ofthe total area of all the units connected to that specific bus.

FIG. 5A is a drawing illustration of different Clock distributionnetwork styles. Many logic circuits or logic units may use a clock treeto distribute a clock signal to the Flip-Flops. A common style of clocktree is the H-Clock Tree 1202. The origin point of the clock signal 1212is driving a first H-Tree from the center of the H. Subsequently, eachend-point of the H is an origin of the next H 1216, and so forth. Thefinal edge 1224 drives the individual Flip-Flop cluster 1218.

In some cases it may be desired to reduce the skew between edges asillustrated in the branch tree 1204 wherein clock tree branches 1214 areshorted by cross-link 1222. Another style of clock distribution iscalled Mesh 1206 where a grid of connection is used to distribute theclock signal. These schemes may be combined to form a hybrid 1208 wherea tree 1220 may be added to a grid 1225. In a 3D device it might bedesired to split logic circuits between at least two strata includingcircuits that share the same clock domain In such case it might bedesired to first connect the clock origin to each strata that hascircuits that use that clock domain, then to construct within eachstratum a clock distribution structure that might include a clock treesuch as, for example, H tree, or grid and tree combination or otherclock distribution scheme used in the art. (See, for example, FIGS. 5Band 5C, for exemplary 3D system/device clock distribution networksH-Clock 1292, Mesh 1296, branch tree 1294, hybrid 1298). Some circuitscould have an interaction between strata wherein a signal may begenerated in one stratum and that signal is used and latched on anotherstratum, and accordingly the skew between Flip-Flop on one stratum andthe other would be reduced. A cross-link 1222 could be used betweenstratum, such as, for example, a TLV or TSV. Alternatively a grid 1224could be constructed spanning multiple stratum reducing the clock skewbetween them. In some cases the origin of the clock may be either drivenby a signal coming from outside of the 3D device or generated by acircuit on the 3D device such as for example, a Phase-Lock-Loop, whichmay be synchronized to a signal from outside of the 3D device (a clocksource may rather be provide on-chip in the 3DIC stack as suggestedlater herein). Accordingly it might be desired to first process theclock signal at the upper-most stratum and then drive it down to theorigins of the clock distribution structures at the desired stratum orstratums. The clock origin of the clock distribution structure andcircuits on one stratum may be connected to the origin of the clockdistribution structure and circuits of a second stratum, with onefeeding the other.

Distribution of a clock signal from one stratum to the next may beaccomplished with electrically conductive vertical connections, forexample, TLVs, or may be accomplished by an RF/capacitive or opticaldevice and connection between stratums. For example, a clock signalgenerated in a device layer above the substrate layer may beelectrically coupled to various points on the substrate layer below(supplying a second layer generated clock signal to a portion orsubstantially all of the substrate based transistors) utilizing a TLVconnection or connections, or an RF/capacitive or optical connection orconnections. Utilizing an only RF/capacitive or optical connection orconnections between stratums may be advantageous when it is desirable toisolate a noisy device type to a single layer, yet bring out theintended signals and not the noise. For example, and analog or RF devicelayer in a 3DIC stack could be emf/emi shielded top and bottom (andsides if necessary), with only openings for a vertical RF/capacitive oroptical connection where desired, thus minimizing the disturb effects ofthe analog or RF device layer on any of the other device layers in the3DIC stack.

Scaling advanced CMOS field effect transistors face at least twoproblems that result in high power consumption: the increasingdifficulty of reducing the supply voltage and stopping the rise ofleakage currents. One device that may replace the CMOS FET is the tunnelFET (TFET). The primary injection mechanism in a TFET is interbandtunneling whereby charge carriers transfer from one energy band intoanother at a heavily doped p+-n+ junction. (In contrast, for MOSFETs thecharge carriers are thermally injected over a barrier). Ioff, the offcurrent of the TFET, is quite low due to this injection barrier and aninherently very steep subthreshold slope. However, obtaining good Ion isdifficult. High barrier transparency is vital and strong modulation bythe gate of the channel bands is critical. Thus, high permittivity gatedielectrics with as low an equivalent oxide thickness as possible aredesirable, as well as providing as thin of a channel body as possiblefor best case electron transport, plus an abrupt doping profile at thetunnel junction to maximize injection efficiency. Maximizing the gatemodulation of the tunneling barrier width can be accomplished byoverlapping the gate with the tunneling region, or designing a sourceregion covered with an intrinsic channel layer under the top gate. TFETscan be formed with a horizontally oriented channel or a verticallyoriented channel. Many types of TFETs have been developed for 2Dapplications, for example, double gate heterojunction TFET, nanowireTFET, Resonant TFET, synthetic electric field TFET, III-V based TFETs,and carbon based TFETs. Many of these can be advantageously formed in amonolithic 3D process flow. Furthermore, the gate dielectric ontransistors may have different dielectric permittivities than silicondioxde. The gate dielectric permittivity of the second layer transistorsmay be different than the gate dielectric permittivity of the firstlayer transistors.

For example, the 2D strained Si nanowire (SiNW) TFETs of L. Knoll, etal., “Demonstration of Improved Transient Response of Inverters withSteep Slope Strained Si NW TFETs by Reduction of TAT with Pulsed I-V andNW Scaling,” IEEE IEDM 2013, paper 4.4, the contents incorporated hereinby reference, may be constructed utilizing the monolithic 3D techniquesand methods disclosed in the incorporated references. For example,nanowires may be formed by patterning and etching either an amorphous-Sior a layer transferred monocrystalline silicon (may be strained Si aswell) thin layer on top of metallization layers that are on top of asubstrate of devices and circuits. HKMG gate stacks may be formed andthen very thin Ni and Al layers may be deposited to form self-alignedsource/drain silicides into which angled implants are shadow implantedto form p+ and n+ pockets on opposite sides of the gates and steepsloped abrupt junctions can be formed with dopant segregationtechniques. RTP and/or pulsed laser techniques with or without shieldingmay be employed for the thermal steps. GAA (Gate All Around) or frigatestructures may be formed as disclosed in the incorporated references.Back gates may be formed in-situ above the bonding oxides or may be fromtopmost metal layers of the layer below's shields and/or interconnectlayers, as disclosed in the incorporated references and herein (theback-gate/bias plane may be accomplished with an integrated device, forexample, a back-channel region 522 or by a base layer (or layer below)top metal plate/line (for example, such as the topmost shieldlayer/region 688) in a monolithic 3D configuration).

For example, the synthetic electric field tunnel FETs (SE-TFET) of Y.Morita, et al., “Synthetic electric filed tunnel FETs: drain currentmultiplication demonstrated by wrapped gate electrode around thinepitaxial channel,” IEEE VLSI Symposium 2013, paper 16.1, T236, thecontents incorporated herein by reference, may be constructed utilizingthe monolithic 3D techniques and methods disclosed in the incorporatedreferences. For example, highly doped source and drains may be formed ona substantially undoped monocrystalline donor substrate withion-implantation and activated as strips and then layer transferred as amonocrystalline silicon thin layer on top of metallization layers thatare on top of a substrate of devices and circuits. The source and drainsmay also be formed directly on a layer transferred substantially undopedmonocrystalline thin layer with masking and ion-implantation/PLADtechniques, and then activated with the optical and/or thermal annealingwith or without shields as disclosed in the incorporated references. Athin (about 5 nm to about 20 nm) undoped channel layer may be formedwith low temperature, for example, such as MOCVD or SP-ALD techniques,to preserve the abrupt vertical junction profile. A HKMG gate stack maybe formed, for example, an about 5 nm HfO₂ insulator and an about 40 nmTiN gate electrode deposition, and subsequent patterning and etching.Interconnect formation may then ensue. Narrow channel widths andthicknesses increase electric field effects and thus may substantiallyimprove the Ion. Backgates, for example, as described herein and in theincorporate references, may also be utilized to increase Ion anddecrease Ioff. Layer transfer of the source, channel and drain provide amonolithic 3D formation advantage to TFETs: for example, not just theaddition of a natural integrated backgate, but also the ability to use ahigher carrier mobility transferred layer such as, for example,Si_(1-x)Ge_(x) or Ge, and InGaAs.

For example, the complementary hetero junction vertical TFETs (VTFET) ofR. Rooyackers, et al., “A New Complementary Hetero-Junction VerticalTunnel-FET Integration Scheme,” IEEE IEDM 2013, paper 4.21, pp. 92-94,the contents incorporated herein by reference, may be constructedutilizing the monolithic 3D techniques and methods disclosed in theincorporated references. For example, and N+Si/intrinsic Si stack may beformed on a donor wafer, flipped, bonded and layer transferred to apre-processed acceptor substrate (of completed transistors, etc.). Thevertical nanowires may be masked and etch utilizing a hard mask, thedrain and gate isolated, gate stacks (may be complementary) formed, andthe gates and dummy source may be isolated. The source can then beselectively etched out and replaced by a low-band-gap material to formthe hetero junction on top of a silicon channel enable a sharp junction.

ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) and Spatial ALD (Spatial separation of thehalf-reactions) techniques may be utilized to form thin nearlymonocrystalline layers in a monolithic 3D fashion and for many of thevarious monolithic 3D structures disclosed herein and in theincorporated references. [S-ALD ref J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 30(1),January/February 2012, Roll to Roll techniques form USA, Finland; andPoodt, P., et al., Advanced Materials 22 (2010) p. 3564]. These are lowtemperature processes that may be compatible with copper or aluminummetallization and/or low-k dielectrics on the layers below the ALD/S-ALDlayer being formed.

For example, the stacking of layers to eventually form a memory stack,may be formed by ALD/S-ALD exclusively or in combination with otherdeposition techniques such as low temp CVD. ALD/S-ALD may be utilized,for example, as described in at least incorporated reference U.S. Pat.No. 8,273,610 to form the p-Si 9906/oxide layers in FIG. 99C for FB-DRAMformation and devices, the RRAM stack of FIGS. 101D, 102D, 103F, 109D,110D, 192D, charge trap stacks such as FIG. 106F, and FIGS. 100D and200D for DRAM.

ALD layers may be doped in-situ with no need for thermal activation toform doped layers (and ultimately regions with masking and etchprocessing), and may be used to form both or one of the layers ofsemiconductor/dielectric stacks or semiconductor/semiconductor stacks,for example, Si & SiO₂, Ge & GeO, Si & Si of differing vertical dopantconcentrations and/or dopant types, etc. The ALD/S-ALD formed layers mayalso be conventionally doped with ion-implantation and activated withtechniques such as described in the incorporated references, forexample, with an optical anneal.

ALD/S-ALD may be utilized, for example, as described in at leastincorporated reference U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610 to form an N+/N−/P+ stacksuch as shown in FIG. 26A to ultimately form horizontal transistors; maybe utilized top form the N+/P−/N+ layer stack of FIG. 39C to ultimatelyform vertical transistors; and may be utilized to form the layers 6802and 6803 of FIG. 68C to ultimately form RCAT transistors.

ALD/S-ALD may be utilized, for example, as described in at leastincorporated reference U.S. Pat No. 8,273,610 to form the N+/P− stack ofFIG. 137C to ultimately form an NVM FPGA configuration cell.

Also meta-material layers for thermal isolation layers, such asdisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,023,688, incorporated herein by reference,may be formed with ALD/S-ALD techniques; disordered nanostructuredmaterials such as WSe2 and the nanoscale layered oxides such asSiO₂/Y₂O₃, SiO₂/Cr₂O₃, and SiO₂/Al₂O₃ for TIL 140.

ALD/S-ALD may be utilized, for example, for low temperature formation ofoxide layers, such as SiO₂, nearly crystalline silicon layers, andsilicon nitride layers such as Si₃N₄ and SiN. The formation of theselayers would not damage the underlying temperature sensitive layers andregions, for example, including copper, aluminum, low-k dielectrics.

Layer transfer a mono-crystalline layer of silicon on top of anunderlying layer or layers of interconnect metallization/dielectrics andtransistors/circuits allowing a relatively easy process to seed andcrystallize, such as by nanographioepitaxy, an overlying germanium layerwas disclosed in at least paragraph 134 of incorporated reference U.S.Pat. No. 8,273,610. This allows formation of the two types oftransistors with direct alignment to the underlying device layer.P-channel Ge transistors, such as, for example, an RCAT or MOSFET, maybe formed utilizing the technique in certain regions of the transferredlayer, and n-channel Si transistors, such as, for example, an RCAT orMOSFET, may be formed in the monocrystalline silicon of other regions ofthe layer transferred silicon layer. By utilizing the technique ofdoping and activating the layer to be transferred on the donor waferprior to transfer, a transistor such as, for example, an RCAT, may beformed on the transferred layer utilizing the methods of at least FIGS.66-68 and associated specification sections of incorporated referenceU.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610. The Ge regions may be crystallized prior to theformation of the silicon transistors and some common formation steps maybe taken advantage of, or the silicon based and Ge based transistors maybe formed in separate steps of the process flow. Si based MOSFETs may beformed, for example, by the gate replacement methods of at least FIGS.70, 81, 82 and associated specification sections of incorporatedreference U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610. Regions of the silicon may be etchedout (leaving appropriate crystallized silicon edges, regions, spaces forthe graphioepitaxy and/or seeding) and crystallized Ge regions may beformed, and Ge based transistors made. Si based MOSFETs may be formed,for example, by the implant and optical anneal methods of at least FIGS.45, 46, 47 and associated specification sections of incorporatedreference U.S. Pat. No. 8,574,929. One of ordinary skill in the artwould recognize that there are many devices which may be formed above anunderlying layer or layers of interconnect metallization/dielectrics andtransistors/circuits wherein a portion of the transistors (such as butnot limited to the channel or portions of the transistor channel) may bemonocrystalline silicon based and a portion of the transistors (such asbut not limited to the channel or portions of the transistor channel)may be crystallized Ge based using a method or combination of methodsdisclosed herein and/or in the incorporated references. The Ge (or GaAs,InP, etc.) formed by LPE into subcritical vias of the transferredsilicon layer with engineered layer such as Ge—see at least FIGS. 27-28and associated specification sections of incorporated reference U.S.Pat. No. 8,574,929) transistor may be utilized for optical I/Os on thetop layer (or lower layers with optical passthrus above or below) of themonolithic 3D stack.

FIGS. 6A-6G illustrate an exemplary n-channel FD-MOSFET with integratedTRL (Trap Rich Layer) and an exemplary process flow. Integrated TPS(Thermal Protective Structure), TIL (Thermal Isolation Layer), and/orTES (Thermally Enhanced Substrate) may be utilized to thermally protectthe metallization, isolation layers, device electrical characteristicsand reliability of devices that may reside in or on the substrate or apreviously constructed layer in the 3D stack from damaging processes andprocessing temperatures. TPS, TIL and TES formation and compositiondetails may be found in some of the incorporated references, forexample, at least U.S. Pat. No. 9,023,688. An exemplary n-channelFD-MOSFET with integrated TRL may be constructed in a 3D stacked layerutilizing procedures outlined herein and in incorporated references.Forming the TRL on a donor wafer as part of the transferred layer mayprovide a greater process window for TRL formation, especially fortemperature exposures, than forming the TRL on the acceptor wafer, whichmay be limited to temperatures less than about 400° C. due to thepresence of copper or aluminum metallization and low k IMDs on the layeror layers below the layer being processed.

Reasons for forming and utilizing a TRL layer and/or regions may includeRF applications, for example horizontal and/or vertical emf/emishielding. For example, RF transistor and circuit performance on anylayer of a 3DIC, such as a strata layer or base substrate, may belimited in terms of transmission line losses by the presence ofparasitic surface conduction (PSC). A TRL layer would be consideredeffective if the presence of the TRL provides an effective resistivity,the true electrical resistivity sensed by a co-planar waveguide (CPW)line, higher than about 1 kohm-cm, or higher than about 3 k-ohm-cm. Thismay result in a CPW attenuation versus frequency response that issubstantially similar to the response of a CPW on a quartz substrate. ATRL may accomplish this thru material or materials and processing thatcreates and/or incorporates defects in the material. A TRL may be formedwith temperature exposures and processes above about 400° C. when formedon a donor substrate prior to layer transfer, and may be formed bytemperature exposures and process of less than about 400° C. when formedon the acceptor wafer that may include copper or aluminum metallizationand/or low-k dielectrics, for example, prior to a monolithic 3D layertransfer or a TSV stack bonding step. An integrated TRL may provide ahigher performance for transistors and circuits built on thelayers/strata of a 3DIC system stack; for example, a radio frequency(RF) receiver/transmitter circuit may operate at greater than about 1gigahertz, a phase lock loop (PLL) circuit may operate at greater thanabout 1 megahertz, a Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) circuit mayoperate at greater than about 1 gigahertz, an oscillator may have afrequency stability of better than 100 ppm/° C., an RF circuit mayexhibit ‘substrate’ losses when placed in a second (or third, etc.)layer/stratum of a monolithic 3DIC device which are, for example, lessthan 0.15 dB/mm at 2 GHz, less than 0.20 dB/mm at 4 GHz. The integratedTRL may provide a shielding effectiveness of vertically adjacentlayers/strata devices of, for example, more than 60 dB, more than 50 dB,or more than 70 dB.

As illustrated in FIG. 6A, SOI donor wafer substrate 1301 may includeback channel layer 1305 above Buried Oxide BOX layer 1303. Back channellayer 1305 may be doped by ion implantation and thermal anneal, mayinclude a crystalline material, for example, mono-crystalline (singlecrystal) silicon and may be heavily doped (greater than about 1e16atoms/cm³), lightly doped (less than about 1e16 atoms/cm³) or nominallyun-doped (less than about 1e14 atoms/cm³). SOI donor wafer substrate1301 may include a crystalline material, for example, mono-crystalline(single crystal) silicon and at least the upper layer near BOX layer1303 may be very lightly doped (less than about 1e15 atoms/cm³) ornominally un-doped (less than about 1e14 atoms/cm³). Back channel layer1305 may have additional ion implantation and anneal processing toprovide a different dopant level than SOI donor wafer substrate 1301 andmay have graded or various layers of doping concentration. SOI donorwafer substrate 1301 may have additional ion implantation and annealprocessing to provide a different dopant level than back channel layer1305 and may have graded or various layers of doping concentration. Thedonor wafer layer stack may alternatively be formed by epitaxiallydeposited doped or undoped silicon layers, or by a combination ofepitaxy and implantation, or by layer transfer. Annealing of implantsand doping may include, for example, conductive/inductive thermal,optical annealing techniques or types of Rapid Thermal Anneal (RTA orspike). The preferred at least top of SOI donor wafer substrate 1301doping will be undoped to eventually create an FD-MOSFET transistor withan undoped conduction channel. SOI donor wafer may be constructed bylayer transfer techniques described herein and/or incorporatedreferences or elsewhere as known in the art, or by laser annealed SIMOXat a post donor layer transfer to acceptor wafer step. BOX layer 1303may be thin enough to provide for effective DC or RF back and/ordevice/transistor body bias, for example, about 25 nm, or about 20 nm,or about 10 nm, or about 5 nm thick. Upper isolation layer 1332 may beformed by deposition of a dielectric such as, for example, siliconoxide, and/or by thermal/RTO oxidation of back channel layer 1305. Upperisolation layer 1332 may include, or may have below it, a layer (notshown) that may serve as a heat shield and/or conductive back plane, forexample, a layer of tungsten (similar to the description in FIGS. 39,40, 41, 42, 43 of U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,574,929 and 9,385,058). The thinlayer of refractory metal with a high melting point may be formed on topof the isolation layer and then patterned after layer transfer, thusforming metalized back-bias regions for the second layer of transistors,the back-bias region will not be harmed by the thermal cycles of theprocessing on the layer being processed. Furthermore, back channel layer1305 and Buried Oxide BOX layer 1303 may be not formed and thetransistor formation may proceed from a bulk donor substrate rather thanan SOI based substrate.

Continuing with the FIG. 6A illustration, TRL 1340 may be formed on topof upper isolation layer 1332. Upper isolation layer 1332 may be etched(partially or fully) to form TRL regions (not shown).

TRL 1340 formation may include deposition of an amorphous silicon or apolysilicon film, or a combination of the two. The deposition mayutilize an LPCVD technique wherein the polycrystalline film may bedeposited at about 625° C. and the amorphous silicon film may bedeposited at about 525° C. Other techniques, such as sputtering, PECVD,etc., may be utilized. The deposited film may be partially crystallizedwith a rapid thermal anneal (RTA) exposure, for example about 100seconds at about 900° C. TRL 1340 may have a thickness that wouldaccomplish the effective resistivity metric at the frequency(ies) ofinterest for the circuit design discussed previously herein, and may be,for example, about 5 nm, about 10 nm, about 20 nm, about 30 nm, about 50nm about 100 nm, about 200 nm, or about 500 nm thick.

TRL 1340 formation may include damaging the surface and/or a top layerof, for example, back channel layer 1305 (or of the substrate in thecase of a bulk donor layer transfer method), thus creating a damagelayer (or regions if masked or etched). Damage may be caused by ionimplantation, for example, such as an Argon ion-implant of about 10¹⁵atoms/cm². Plasma sheath, or plasma source ion implantation may beutilized. Preferably the implantation is configured to damage and notdope the layer, the objective being to provide as high an effectiveresistivity as possible. The dose and energy may be set to bring thedamaged layer close to or completely amorphize the crystalline structureof the damaged layer or region.

TRL 1340 formation may include deposition of a silicon rich siliconoxide, a silicon rich silicon nitride, and may include deposition of asiliconoxynitride film. TRL 1340 formation may include deposition of acarbon or carbon rich film, for example, amorphous carbon, disorderedgrapheme, DLC (Diamond Like Carbon), disordered carbon nanotube mats, orSiCO. TRL 1340 formation may include some of the materials formed increation of the TIL layer of incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 9,023,688 thathave a high trap density, for example, forming nanoscale layered oxidesor layers of disordered nanostructured materials.

Some references concerning trap layer materials may be found in at leastthese references: Frohman-Bentchkowsky, D. (1969). An integratedmetal-nitride-oxide-silicon (MNOS) memory. Proceedings of the IEEE,57(6), 1190-1192; and Frohman-Bentchkowsky, D., & Lenzlinger, M. (1969).Charge Transport and Storage in Metal-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (MNOS)Structures. Journal of Applied Physics, 40(8), 3307-3319; and White, M.H., & Cricchi, J. R. (1972). Characterization of thin-oxide MNOS memorytransistors. Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on, 19(12), 1280-1288;and Thermal and plasma nitridation of silicon and silicon dioxide forultrathin gate insulators of MOS VLSI. Ph.D. dissertation by Moslehi,Mehrdad Mahmud, Stanford University, 1986; Roda Neve, C., and Raskin, J.P. (2012). RF harmonic distortion of CPW lines on HR-Si and trap-richHR-Si substrates. Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on, 59(4),924-932; and Sarafis, P., Hourdakis, E., Nassiopoulou, A. G., Roda Neve,C., Ben Ali, K., & Raskin, J. P. (2013). Advanced Si-based substratesfor RF passive integration: Comparison between local porous Si layertechnology and trap-rich high resistivity Si. Solid-State Electronics,87, 27-33; the following in their entirety are incorporated byreference. These references, esp. Moslehi's thesis, discuss variousprocesses, outside of ion implantation, which may be used to create anembedded layer of trapped charge, and characterize the trapped chargeper unit area as a function of various processing conditions.

TRL 1340 may be formed thicker than the desired end thickness, and thenthinned by, for example, CMP processing or etching, to the desired endthickness, or for the purposes of smoothing the surface to enableimproved bonding.

A pre-layer-transfer anneal may be performed as part of the TRL 1340formation process or after the formation of TRL 1340, and may include athermal anneal equal to or greater than the maximum temperature that theTRL 1340 would see during subsequent processing, for example, during the3DIC stack processing, including layer transfer/bonding,transistor/device formation, activation anneals, and so on. Thepre-layer-transfer anneal temperature may be about 10° C. greater thanthe process exposure maximum, or about 20° C. greater than the processexposure maximum, or about 30° C. greater than the process exposuremaximum, or about 40° C. greater than the process exposure maximum. Thepre-layer-transfer anneal temperature may be limited by theeffect/damage it may have on the doping gradients elsewhere in the donorstack, or the damage repair/stress/outgassing effects on TRL 1340, asexamples. The time of the pre-layer-transfer anneal at maximumtemperature (the process exposure maximum) may be less than about 130minutes, or less than about 1 hour, or less than about 2 hours. Theformation of TRL 1340 and/or the anneal of TRL 1340 and the donor stackmay be at a temperature and time greater than allowed by a metallizedacceptor structure, for example, above about 400° C., above about 600°C., above about 800° C., above about 1000° C.

As illustrated in FIG. 6B, the top surface of the donor wafer stack thatmay include SOI donor wafer substrate 1301, may be prepared for oxidewafer bonding with a deposition of an oxide to form capping layer 1329.

A layer transfer demarcation plane (shown as dashed line) 1399 may beformed by hydrogen implantation or other methods (such as a preformedSiGe layer) as described in the incorporated references, and may residewithin the SOI donor wafer substrate 1301. The SOI donor wafer substrate1301 stack surface 1382, and acceptor wafer 1397 (first shown in FIG.6C) may be prepared for wafer bonding as previously described in theincorporated references and may be low temperature (less thanapproximately 400° C.) bonded.

As illustrated in FIG. 13C, capping layer 1329, back channel layer 1305,BOX layer 1303 and remaining channel layer 1307 may be layer transferredto acceptor wafer 1397. Capping layer 1329 and acceptor wafer 1397 topbonding oxide (not shown) may be oxide to oxide bonded, thus forminglower isolation layer 1330. Acceptor wafer 1397, as described in theincorporated references and herein, may include, for example,transistors, circuitry, and metal, such as, for example, aluminum orcopper, interconnect wiring, a metal shield/heat sink layer or layers,and thru layer via metal interconnect strips or pads. Acceptor wafer1397 may be substantially comprised of a crystalline material, forexample mono-crystalline silicon or germanium, or may be an engineeredsubstrate/wafer such as, for example, an SOI (Silicon on Insulator)wafer or GeOI (Germanium on Insulator) substrate. Acceptor wafer 1397may include transistors such as, for example, MOSFETS, FD-MOSFETS,FinFets, FD-RCATs, BJTs, HEMTs, and/or HBTs. The portion of the SOIdonor wafer substrate 1301 that may be above (when the layer stack isflipped over and bonded to the acceptor wafer 1397) the layer transferdemarcation plane 1399 may be removed by cleaving or other lowtemperature processes as described in the incorporated references, suchas, for example, ion-cut with mechanical or thermal cleave or otherlayer transfer methods, thus forming remaining channel layer 1307.

Formation of transistors and devices on the layer being processed 1360without harming the underlying structures of acceptor wafer 1397 mayproceed with a variety of methods. For example, as disclosed in at leastFIGS. 33 and 46 and related specification sections of incorporated byreference U.S. Pat. No. 8,574,929, transistors may be formed with anintegrated heat shields and optical annealing. For example, formation ofCMOS in one transferred layer and the orthogonal connect stripmethodology may be found as illustrated in at least FIGS. 30-33, 73-80,and 94 and related specification sections of U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610,and may be applied. Low temperature and/or heat shielded 3D stackingtransistor formation techniques may help preserve the effectiveness ofthe trap rich layer by not significantly annealing the defects andtraps.

The exemplary flow herein FIG. 6 is utilizing a similar transistorformation technique as described in incorporated U.S. Pat. No.9,023,688, and may utilize a TIL, which may be integrated with TRL 1340,on the top or bottom face of the TRL 1340, or both. Or may be one in thesame—the TIL may also have trap properties of a TRL. Many conventionalsemiconductor processing steps may now be utilized to form transistorsand devices on the layer being processed 1360 without harming theunderlying structures of acceptor wafer 1397, for example, a depositionor anneal may be performed at 800° C. on layer being processed 1360.Heat removal from the substrate, for example, such as via a cooledchuck, is described in incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 9,023,688.

Damage/defects to a crystalline structure of back channel layer 1305 andremaining channel layer 1307 may be annealed by conventional thermalanneals with appropriate cold chuck equipment and/or some of theannealing methods as described in the incorporated references, forexample the short wavelength pulsed laser techniques, wherein the layerbeing processed 1360 (which may include back channel layer 1305, BOXlayer 1303 and remaining channel layer 1307) may be heated to defectannealing temperatures, but the underlying structures of acceptor wafer1397 may be kept below the damage temperature of acceptor wafer 1397,for example, less than about 400° C.

The top surface of remaining channel layer 1307 may be chemicallymechanically polished, and/or heat treated, to bring the surface qualityto conventional defect levels and/or may be thinned by low temperatureoxidation and strip processes, such as the TEL SPA tool radicaloxidation and HF:H₂O solutions as described in referenced patents andpatent applications. Thru the processing, the wafer sized layer channellayer 1307 could be thinned from its original total thickness, and itsfinal total thickness could be in the range of about 5 nm to about 20nm, for example, 5 nm, 7 nm, 10 nm, 12 nm, 15 nm, or 20 nm. Channellayer 1307 may have a thickness and/or doping that may allowfully-depleted channel operation when the FD-MOSFET transistor issubstantially completely formed. Acceptor wafer 1397 may include one ormore shield/heat sink layers 1318, which may include materials such as,for example, Aluminum, Tungsten (a refractory metal), copper, silicon orcobalt based silicides, or forms of carbon such as carbon nanotubes orgraphene, and may be layered itself as described in FIG. 3 of the parentand in at least incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 9,023,688. Each shield/heatsink layer 1318 may have a thickness range of about 50 nm to about 1 mm,for example, 50 nm, 100 nm, 200 nm, 1300 nm, 500 nm, 0.1 um, 1 um, 2 um,and 10 um. Shield/heat sink layer 1318 may include isolation openingsalignment mark openings (not shown), which may be utilized for shortwavelength alignment of top layer (donor) processing to the acceptorwafer alignment marks (not shown). Shield/heat sink layer 1318 may actas a heat spreader. Electrically conductive materials may be used forthe two layers of shield/heat sink layer 1318 and thus may provide, forexample, a Vss and a Vdd plane and/or grid that may be connected to thedonor layer transistors above, as well may be connected to the acceptorwafer transistors below, and/or may provide below transferred layerdevice interconnection. Noise on the power grids, such as the Vss andVdd plane power conducting lines/wires, may be mitigated byattaching/connecting decoupling capacitors onto the power conductinglines of the grids. The decoupling caps, which may be within the secondlayer (donor, for example, donor wafer device structures) or first layer(acceptor, for example acceptor wafer transistors and devices 1302), mayinclude, for example, trench capacitors such as described by Pei, C., etal., “A novel, low-cost deep trench decoupling capacitor forhigh-performance, low-power bulk CMOS applications,” ICSICT (9^(th)International Conference on Solid-State and Integrated-CircuitTechnology) 2008, October 2008, pp. 1146-1149, of IBM. The decouplingcapacitors may include, for example, planar capacitors, such as poly tosubstrate or poly to poly, or MiM capacitors (Metal-Insulator-Metal).Shield/heat sink layer 1318 may include materials with a high thermalconductivity greater than 10 W/m-K, for example, copper (about 400W/m-K), aluminum (about 237 W/m-K), Tungsten (about 173 W/m-K), PlasmaEnhanced Chemical Vapor Deposited Diamond Like Carbon-PECVD DLC (about1000 W/m-K), and Chemical Vapor Deposited (CVD) graphene (about 5000W/m-K). Shield/heat sink layer 1318 may be sandwiched and/orsubstantially enclosed by materials with a low thermal conductivity(less than 10 W/m-K), for example, silicon dioxide (about 1.4 W/m-K).When there may be more than one shield/heat sink layer 1318 in thedevice, the heat conducting layer closest to the TRL 1340 may beconstructed with a different material, for example a high melting pointmaterial, for example a refractory metal such as tungsten, than theother heat conducting layer or layers, which may be constructed with,for example, a lower melting point material, for example such asaluminum or copper. The remaining SOI donor wafer substrate 1301 may nowalso be processed, such as smoothing and annealing, and reused foradditional layer transfers. Upper isolation layer 1332 and/or lowerisolation layer 1330 may include thicknesses of less than about 1 um,less than about 500 nm, less than about 400 nm, less than about 300 nm,less than about 200 nm, or less than about 100 nm.

As illustrated in FIG. 6D, transistor and back channel isolation regions1385 and/or transistor isolation regions 1387 may be formed. Transistorisolation region 1387 may be formed by mask defining and plasma/RIEetching channel layer 1307, substantially to the top of BOX layer 1303(not shown), substantially into BOX layer 1303, or back channel layer1305 (not shown). Transistor and back channel isolation regions 1385 andtransistor-backchannel-TRL isolation regions 1386 may be formed by maskdefining and plasma/RIE etching channel layer 1307, BOX layer 1303 andback channel layer 1305, substantially to the top of upper isolationlayer 1332 (not shown) or substantially into upper isolation layer 1332for transistor and back channel isolation regions 1385 and substantiallyto lower isolation layer 1330 for transistor-backchannel-TRL isolationregions 1386. Note: transistor-backchannel-TRL isolation regions 1386are utilized when the electrical conductivity of the TRL 1340 isundesirably high and may cause undesired leakage paths between theeventual TLVs. Thus channel region 1323 may be formed, which maysubstantially form the transistor body, back-channel region 1321 may beformed, which may provide a back bias and/or Vt control by doping orbias to one or more channel regions 1323, and BOX region 1331. (TRLregions 1341 may also be thusly formed.) Back-channel region 1321 may beion implanted for Vt control and/or body bias efficiency. A conventionalor low-temperature gap fill dielectric, such as SACVD oxide, may bedeposited and chemically mechanically polished, the oxide remaining intransistor and back channel isolation regions 1385 and transistorisolation regions 1387. An optical or a conventional thermal and /oroxidizing anneal may be performed to anneal etch damage in back-channelregion 1321 and channel region 1323, and densify the STI oxide intransistor and back channel isolation regions 1385 and transistorisolation regions 1387. The doping concentration of channel region 1323may include vertical or horizontal gradients of concentration or layersof differing doping concentrations. The doping concentration ofback-channel region 1321 may include vertical or horizontal gradients ofconcentration or layers of differing doping concentrations. Anyadditional doping, such as ion-implanted channel implants, may beactivated and annealed with optical annealing, or conventionally. BOXregion 1331 may be a relatively thin dielectric, including the thicknessrange of about 5 nm to about 100 nm, at least a portion of which beingbetween the back-channel region 1321 and channel region 1323.Back-channel region 1321 could be constructed from a material other thancrystalline silicon, for example, a refractory metal or doped silicon incrystallized form, poly or amorphous, or other conductive materials thatare acceptable for semiconductor processing and can withstand hightemperatures.

As illustrated in FIG. 6E, a transistor forming process, such as aconventional HKMG with raised source and drains (S/D), may be performed.For example, a dummy gate stack (not shown), utilizing oxide andpolysilicon, may be formed, gate spacers 1351 may be formed, raised S/Dregions 1353 and channel stressors may be formed by etch and epitaxialdeposition, for example, of SiGe and/or SiC/P depending on P or Nchannel (and may be doped in-situ or ion-implantation and annealactivation), LDD and S/D ion-implantations may be performed, and firstILD 1355 may be deposited and CMP'd to expose the tops of the dummygates. Thus transistor channel region 1325 and S/D & LDD regions 1357may be formed. The dummy gate stack may be removed and a gate dielectric1359 may be formed and a gate metal material gate electrode 1361,including a layer of proper work function metal (Ti_(x)Al_(y), N_(z) forexample) and a conductive fill, such as aluminum, and may be depositedand CMP'd. The gate dielectric 1359 may be an atomic layer deposited(ALD) gate dielectric that may be paired with a work function specificgate metal in the industry standard high k metal gate process schemes,for example, as described in the incorporated references. Furthermore,the gate dielectric on transistors may have different dielectricpermittivities than silicon dioxde. The gate dielectric permittivity ofthe second layer transistors may be different than the gate dielectricpermittivity of the first layer transistors. An optical anneal may beperformed to densify and/or remove defects from gate dielectric 1359,anneal defects and activate dopants such as LDD and S/D implants,densify the first ILD 1355, form DSS junctions (Dopant SegregatedSchottky such as NiSi₂), and/or form contact and S/D silicides (notshown). Optionally, portions of transistor isolation region 1387 and BOXregion 1331 may be lithographically defined and etched away, thusforming second transistor isolation regions 1389 and PD transistor area1363. Partially depleted transistors (not shown) may be constructed in asimilar manner as the FD-MOSFETs constructed on transistor channelregion 1325 herein, but now with the thicker back-channel region 1321silicon as its channel body. PD transistor area 1363 may also beutilized to later form a direct connection thru a contact to theback-channel region 1321 for back bias and Vt control of the transistorwith transistor channel region 1325. This may also be utilized for RFtransistors. If no PD devices are desired, then it may be more efficientto later form a direct connection thru a contact to the back-channelregion 1321 for back bias and Vt control of the transistor withtransistor channel region 1325 by etching a contact thru transistorisolation region 1387.

As illustrated in FIG. 6F, a thick oxide 1363 may be deposited andplanarized. Source, gate, drain, two types of back contact openings maybe masked, etched, and filled with electrically conductive materialspreparing the transistors to be connected via metallization. Thus gatecontact 1365 connects to gate electrode 1361, source & drain contacts1366 connect to raised S/D regions 1353, back channel contact 1368 mayconnect to back-channel region 1321, and direct back contact 1367 mayconnect to back-channel region 1321. Back channel contact 1368 anddirect back contact 1367 may be formed to connect to shield/heat sinklayer 1318 by further etching, and may be useful for hard wiring a backbias that may be controlled by, for example, the second layer or firstlayer transistors and circuitry into the FD MOSFET.

As illustrated in FIG. 6G, thru layer vias (TLVs) 1380 may be formed byetching thick oxide 1363, first ILD 1355, transistor-backchannel-TRLisolation regions 1386, upper isolation layer 1332, lower isolationlayer 1330, and filling with an electrically and thermally conductingmaterial (such as tungsten or cooper) or an electrically non-conductingbut thermally conducting material (such as described herein and in theincorporated references). Second device layer metal interconnect 1381may be formed by conventional processing. TLVs 1380 may be constructedof thermally conductive but not electrically conductive materials, forexample, DLC (Diamond Like Carbon), and may connect the FD-MOSFETtransistor device and other devices on the top (second) crystallinelayer thermally to shield/heat sink layer 1318. TLVs 1380 may beconstructed out of electrically and thermally conductive materials, suchas Tungsten, Copper, or aluminum, and may provide a thermal andelectrical connection path from the FD-MOSFET transistor device andother devices on the top (second) crystalline layer to shield/heat sinklayer 1318, which may be a ground or Vdd plane in the design/layout.TLVs 1380 may be also constructed in the device scribelanes(pre-designed in base layers or potential dicelines) to provide thermalconduction to the heat sink, and may be sawed/diced off when the waferis diced for packaging, not shown). Shield/heat sink layer 1318 may beconfigured to act (or adapted to act) as an emf/emi (electro-motiveforce/interference) shield to prevent direct layer to layer cross-talkbetween transistors in the donor wafer layer and transistors in theacceptor wafer. In addition to static ground or Vdd biasing, shield/heatsink layer 1318 may be actively biased with an anti-interference signalfrom circuitry residing on, for example, a layer of the 3D-IC or offchip. The formed FD-MOSFET transistor device may include semiconductorregions wherein the dopant concentration of neighboring regions of thetransistor in the horizontal plane, such as traversed by exemplarydopant plane 1384, may have regions, for example, transistor channelregion 1325 and S/D & LDD regions 1357, that differ substantially indopant concentration, for example, a 10 times greater dopingconcentration in S/D & LDD regions 1357 than in transistor channelregion 1325, and/or may have a different dopant type, such as, forexample p-type or n-type dopant, and/or may be doped and substantiallyundoped in the neighboring regions. For example, transistor channelregion 1325 may be very lightly doped (less than about 1e15 atoms/cm³)or nominally un-doped (less than about 1e14 atoms/cm³) and S/D & LDDregions 1357 may be doped at greater than about 1e15 atoms/cm³ orgreater than about 1e16 atoms/cm³. For example, transistor channelregion 1325 may be doped with p-type dopant and S/D & LDD regions 1357may be doped with n-type dopant.

An operations thermal conduction path may be constructed from thedevices in the upper layer, the transferred donor layer and formedtransistors, to the acceptor wafer substrate and an associated heatsink. The thermal conduction path from the FD-MOSFET transistor deviceand other devices on the top (second) crystalline layer, for example,raised S/D regions 1353, to the acceptor wafer heat sink (not shown, butmay be placed on the backside of substrate 1300, may include source &drain contacts 1366, second device layer metal interconnect 1381, TLV1380, a portion of heat sink/shield 1318, 1308, 1312, 1314, and acceptorsubstrate 1300. The elements of the thermal conduction path may includematerials that have a thermal conductivity greater than 10 W/m-K, forexample, copper (about 400 W/m-K), aluminum (about 237 W/m-K), andTungsten (about 173 W/m-K), and may include material with thermalconductivity lower than 10 W/m-K but have a high heat transfer capacitydue to the wide area available for heat transfer and thickness of thestructure (Fourier's Law), such as, for example, acceptor substrate1300. The elements of the thermal conduction path may include materialsthat are thermally conductive but may not be substantially electricallyconductive, for example, Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor DepositedDiamond Like Carbon-PECVD DLC (about 1000 W/m-K), and Chemical VaporDeposited (CVD) graphene (about 5000 W/m-K). The acceptor waferinterconnects may be substantially surrounded by BEOL isolation 1310,which may be a dielectric such as, for example, carbon doped siliconoxides. The heat removal apparatus, which may include acceptor waferheat sink (not shown), may include an external surface from which heattransfer may take place by methods such as air cooling, liquid cooling,or attachment to another heat sink or heat spreader structure.

Furthermore, some or all of the layers utilized as shield/heat sinklayer 1318, which may include shapes of material such as the strips orfingers as illustrated in at least FIG. 33B and related specificationsections of U.S. Pat. No. 8,450,804, may be driven by a portion of thesecond layer transistors and circuits (within the transferred donorwafer layer or layers) or the acceptor wafer transistors and circuits,to provide a programmable back-bias to at least a portion of the secondlayer transistors. The programmable back bias may utilize a circuit todo so, for example, such as shown in FIG. 17B of U.S. Pat. No.8,273,610, the contents incorporated herein by reference; wherein the‘Primary’ layer may be the second layer of transistors for which theback-bias is being provided, the ‘Foundation’ layer could be either thesecond layer transistors (donor) or first layer transistors (acceptor),and the routing metal lines connections 1723 and 1724 may includeportions of the shield/heat sink layer 1318 layer or layers. Moreover,some or all of the layers utilized as shield/heat sink layer 1318, whichmay include strips or fingers as illustrated in FIG. 33B and relatedspecification of U.S. Pat. No. 8,450,804, may be driven by a portion ofthe second layer transistors and circuits (within the transferred donorwafer layer or layers) or the acceptor wafer transistors and circuits toprovide a programmable power supply to at least a portion of the secondlayer transistors. The programmable power supply may utilize a circuitto do so, for example, such as shown in FIG. 17C of U.S. Pat. No.8,273,610, the contents incorporated herein by reference; wherein the‘Primary’ layer may be the second layer of transistors for which theprogrammable power supplies are being provided to, the ‘Foundation’layer could be either the second layer transistors (donor) or firstlayer transistors (acceptor), and the routing metal line connectionsfrom Vout to the various second layer transistors may include portionsof the shield/heat sink layer 1318 layer or layers. The Vsupply on line17C12 and the control signals on control line 17C16 may be controlled byand/or generated in the second layer transistors (for example donorwafer device structures such as the FD-MOSFETs formed as described inrelation to FIG. 6) or first layer transistors (acceptor, for exampleacceptor wafer transistors and devices 1302), or off chip circuits.Furthermore, some or all of the layers utilized as shield/heat sinklayer 1318, which may include strips or fingers as illustrated in FIG.33B and related specification of U.S. Pat. No. 8,450,804 or other shapessuch as those in FIG. 33B, may be utilized to distribute independentpower supplies to various portions of the second layer transistors orfirst layer transistors (acceptor, for example acceptor wafertransistors and devices 1302) and circuits; for example, one powersupply and/or voltage may be routed to the sequential logic circuits ofthe second layer and a different power supply and/or voltage routed tothe combinatorial logic circuits of the second layer. Moreover, thepower distribution circuits/grid may be designed so that Vdd may have adifferent value for each stack layer. Patterning of shield/heat sinklayer 1318 or layers can impact their heat-shielding capacity. Thisimpact may be mitigated, for example, by enhancing the top shield/heatsink layer 1318 areal density, creating more of the secondaryshield/heat sink layers 1318, or attending to special CAD rulesregarding their metal density, similar to CAD rules that are required toaccommodate Chemical-Mechanical Planarization (CMP). These constraintswould be integrated into a design and layout EDA tool. Moreover, thesecond layer of circuits and transistors, for example, for example donorwafer device structures such as the FD-MOSFETs formed as described inrelation to FIG. 6, may include I/O logic devices, such as SerDes(Serialiser/Deserialiser), and conductive bond pads (not shown). Theoutput or input conductive pads of the I/O circuits may be coupled, forexample by bonded wires, to external devices. The output or inputconductive pads may also act as a contact port for the 3D device outputto connect to external devices. The emf/emi generated by the I/Ocircuits could be shielded from the other layers in the stack by use of,for example, the shield/heat sink layer 1318. Placement of the I/Ocircuits on the same stack layer as the conductive bond pad may enableclose coupling of the desired I/O energy and lower signal loss.Furthermore, the second layer of circuits and transistors, for exampledonor wafer device structures such as the FD-MOSFETs formed as describedin relation to FIG. 6, may include RF (Radio Frequency) circuits and/orat least one antenna For example, the second layer of circuits andtransistors may include RF circuits to enable an off-chip communicationcapability to external devices, for example, a wireless communicationcircuit or circuits such as a Bluetooth protocol or capacitive coupling.The emf/emi generated by the RF circuits could be shielded from theother layers in the stack by use of, for example, the TRL 1340 and/orshield/heat sink layer 1318.

TLVs 1380 may be formed through the transferred layers. As thetransferred layers may be thin, on the order of about lum or less inthickness, the TLVs may be easily manufactured as a typical metal tometal via may be, and said TLV may have state of the art diameters suchas nanometers or tens to a few hundreds of nanometers, such as, forexample about 250 nm or about 100 nm or about 50 nm. The thinner thetransferred layers, the smaller the thru layer via diameter obtainable,which may result from maintaining manufacturable via aspect ratios. Thethickness of the layer or layers transferred according to someembodiments of the invention may be designed as such to match and enablethe most suitable obtainable lithographic resolution (and enable the useof conventional state of the art lithographic tools), such as, forexample, less than about 10 nm, 14 nm, 22 nm or 28 nm linewidthresolution and alignment capability, such as, for example, less thanabout 5 nm, 10 nm, 20 nm, or 40 nm alignment accuracy/precision/error,of the manufacturing process employed to create the thru layer vias orany other structures on the transferred layer or layers. Design choicesmay determine if TLVs are formed thru transistor and back channelisolation regions 1385 and/or thru transistor-backchannel-TRL isolationregions 1386.

Formation of CMOS in one transferred layer and the orthogonal connectstrip methodology may be found as illustrated in at least FIGS. 30-33,73-80, and 94 and related specification sections of U.S. Pat. No.8,273,610, and may be applied to at least the FIG. 6 formationtechniques herein. Transferred layer or layers may have regions of STIor other transistor elements within it or on it when transferred, butwould then use alignment and connection schemes for layer transfer ofpatterned layers as described in incorporated patent references.

Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that theillustrations in FIGS. 6A through 6G are exemplary only and are notdrawn to scale. Such skilled persons will further appreciate that manyvariations are possible such as, for example, a p-channel FD-MOSFET maybe formed with changing the types of dopings appropriately. Moreover,the SOI donor wafer substrate 1301 may be n type or un-doped.Furthermore, transistor and back channel isolation regions 1385 andtransistor isolation region 1387 may be formed by a hard mask definedprocess flow, wherein a hard mask stack, such as, for example, siliconoxide and silicon nitride layers, or silicon oxide and amorphous carbonlayers, may be utilized. Moreover, CMOS FD MOSFETs may be constructedwith n-MOSFETs in a first mono-crystalline silicon layer and p-MOSFETsin a second mono-crystalline layer, which may include differentcrystalline orientations of the mono-crystalline silicon layers, such asfor example, <100>, <111> or <551>, and may include different contactsilicides for optimum contact resistance to p or n type source, drains,and gates. Further, dopant segregation techniques (DST) may be utilizedto efficiently modulate the source and drain Schottky barrier height forboth p and n type junctions formed. Furthermore, raised source and draincontact structures, such as etch and epi SiGe and SiC, may be utilizedfor strain and contact resistance improvements and the damage from theprocesses may be optically annealed. Strain on a transistor channel toenhance carrier mobility may be accomplished by a stressor layer orlayers as well. Moreover, a process could be done on bulk donor waferrather than an SOI wafer as well to form other types of transistorswithout integrated body/back-channel layer/regions. Additionally, thelayer transfer process may utilize a method other than ion-cut, forexample, a porous layer or selectively etchable layer, detach layermethod. Furthermore, a process could be done to form other types oftransistors on the layer to be processed 1360, for example, FinFets orTFETs. Many other modifications within the scope of the invention willsuggest themselves to such skilled persons after reading thisspecification. Thus the invention is to be limited only by the appendedclaims

A donor wafer that may include a pre-made TRL and other layers, forexample, the structure as illustrated in FIG. 6B, may be manufacturedfor/by and supplied by a wafer vendor such as MEMC/SunEdison, SEH,Soitec, etc.

A donor wafer that may include a pre-made TRL and other layers, forexample, the structure as illustrated in FIG. 6B, may be layertransferred utilized the perforated carrier wafer methods as describedin at least FIGS. 184, 185, 186, and 187 and related specificationsections of U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610. A debond/release etchant protectlayer may be included in the transfer layer stack to protect the TRL1340 and other layers from the debond/release etchant utilized in theperforated carrier wafer methodology.

A TRL may be formed directly on the acceptor wafer prior to a layertransfer of the material to form the next layer of devices and circuits.Structures and devices similar to those described and illustrated withrespect to at least FIG. 6 may be formed, but the TRL formation may belimited to temperatures less than about 400° C. due to the presence ofcopper or aluminum metallization and low k IMDs on the layer or layersbelow the layer being processed. An exemplary process flow is describedwith respect to FIGS. 7A-7E. FIG. 7E illustrates an exemplary n-channelFD-MOSFET with integrated TRL (Trap Rich Layer). Integrated TPS (ThermalProtective Structure), TIL (Thermal Isolation Layer), and/or TES(Thermally Enhanced Substrate) may be utilized to thermally protect themetallization, isolation layers, device electrical characteristics andreliability of devices that may reside in or on the substrate or apreviously constructed layer in the 3D stack from damaging processes andprocessing temperatures. Formation and composition details may be foundin at least some of the incorporated references, for example, U.S. Pat.No. 9,023,688. An exemplary n-channel FD-MOSFET with integrated TRL maybe constructed in a 3D stacked layer utilizing procedures outlinedherein and in incorporated references.

As illustrated in FIG. 7A, SOI donor wafer substrate 1401 may includeback channel layer 1405 above Buried Oxide BOX layer 1403. Back channellayer 1405 may be doped by ion implantation and thermal anneal, mayinclude a crystalline material, for example, mono-crystalline (singlecrystal) silicon and may be heavily doped (greater than about 1e16atoms/cm³), lightly doped (less than about 1e16 atoms/cm³) or nominallyun-doped (less than about 1e14 atoms/cm³). SOI donor wafer substrate1401 may include a crystalline material, for example, mono-crystalline(single crystal) silicon and at least the upper layer near BOX layer1403 may be very lightly doped (less than about 1e15 atoms/cm³) ornominally un-doped (less than about 1e14 atoms/cm³). Back channel layer1405 may have additional ion implantation and anneal processing toprovide a different dopant level than SOI donor wafer substrate 1401 andmay have graded or various layers of doping concentration. SOI donorwafer substrate 1401 may have additional ion implantation and annealprocessing to provide a different dopant level than back channel layer1405 and may have graded or various layers of doping concentration. Thedonor wafer layer stack may alternatively be formed by epitaxiallydeposited doped or undoped silicon layers, or by a combination ofepitaxy and implantation, or by layer transfer. Annealing of implantsand doping may include, for example, conductive/inductive thermal,optical annealing techniques or types of Rapid Thermal Anneal (RTA orspike). The preferred at least top of SOI donor wafer substrate 1401doping will be undoped to eventually create an FD-MOSFET transistor withan updoped conduction channel. SOI donor wafer may be constructed bylayer transfer techniques described herein or elsewhere as known in theart, or by laser annealed SIMOX at a post donor layer transfer toacceptor wafer step. BOX layer 1403 may be thin enough to provide foreffective DC or RF back and/or device/transistor body bias, for example,about 25 nm, or about 20 nm, or about 10 nm, or about 5 nm thick.Furthermore, back channel layer 1405 and Buried Oxide BOX layer 1403 maybe not formed and the transistor formation may proceed from a bulk donorsubstrate rather than an SOI based substrate.

As illustrated in FIG. 7B, the top surface of the donor wafer stack thatmay include SOI donor wafer substrate 1401, may be prepared for waferbonding with a deposition of an oxide on or by thermal/RTO oxidation ofback channel layer 1405 to form bonding oxide layer 1471. Bonding oxidelayer 1471 may include, or may have below it, a layer (not shown) thatmay serve as a heat shield and/or conductive back plane, for example, alayer of tungsten (a layer of tungsten (similar to the description inFIGS. 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 of U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,574,929 and 9,385,058). Thethin layer of refractory metal with a high melting point may be formedon top of the isolation layer and then patterned after layer transfer,thus forming metalized back-bias regions for the second layer oftransistors, the back-bias region will not be harmed by the thermalcycles of the processing on the layer being processed.

A layer transfer demarcation plane (shown as dashed line) 1499 may beformed by hydrogen implantation or other methods as described in theincorporated references, and may reside within the SOI donor wafersubstrate 1401.

As illustrated in FIG. 7C, acceptor substrate 1497 may be prepared and aTRL 1440 may be formed including a capping/bonding layer 1431. Acceptorsubstrate 1497 may be prepared in a similar manner as at least as thestructures and devices described in FIGS. 1A-1E of incorporated U.S.Pat. No. 9,023,688, up to and including lower isolation layer 1300(lower isolation layer 1430 in FIG. 7C), and using known in the arttechniques. Acceptor wafer 1497, as described in the incorporatedreferences and herein, may include, for example, transistors, circuitry,and metal, such as, for example, aluminum or copper, interconnectwiring, a metal shield/heat sink layer or layers, and thru layer viametal interconnect strips or pads. Acceptor wafer 1497 may besubstantially comprised of a crystalline material, for examplemono-crystalline silicon or germanium, or may be an engineeredsubstrate/wafer such as, for example, an SOI (Silicon on Insulator)wafer or GeOI (Germanium on Insulator) substrate. Acceptor wafer 1497may include transistors such as, for example, MOSFETS, FD-MOSFETS,FinFets, FD-RCATs, BJTs, HEMTs, and/or HBTs.

TPS protective structures to protect the desired regions of substratedevices may be constructed. These protective structures may beconstructed using conventional and known in the art processingtechniques. A substrate 1400, for example, a monocrystalline siliconwafer which may be thermally enhanced (a Thermally EnhancedSubstrate—TES—as described in incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 9,023,688), ofwhich a portion is shown in FIG. 7, may have substrate device regions1402 including devices, such as, for example, transistors, capacitors,and resistors. These substrate device regions 1402 could be formed aseventual product dice with surrounding scribelanes and die edge seals.The devices within the regions of substrate devices could be wholly orpartially within the substrate 1400 material. The scribelanes may alsobe called dicing streets or scribelines.

The substrate 1400 may also have a backside surface 1404 that may beutilized to conduct processing heat (the heat source may be the layerbeing processed 1460 during device formation steps or portions of theequipment performing the processing such as IR lamps) from the substrate1400 to a processing equipment cooling chuck or other thermalconduction/heat removal device, generally within the processingequipment.

The substrate device regions 1402 may have corresponding regions ofsubstrate metallization 1408 and BEOL isolation 1410 interconnectlayers, which may include copper or aluminum metallization materials andlow-k dielectric inter-metal dielectrics (IMD) respectively. These maybe constructed with known in the art BEOL processing.

As part of the construction of or separately from the formation ofregions of substrate metallization 1408 and BEOL isolation 1410interconnect layers, one or more shield layer or regions 1418 ofmetallization and isolation may be constructed. Details are inreferenced applications. For example, the shield layer or regions 1418metallization may include materials such as tungsten, copper, aluminum,grapheme, diamond, carbon, materials with a high thermal conductivity(>10 W/m-K) and an appropriate melting/softening point. The shield layeror regions 1418 may be constructed as a continuous slab acrosssubstantially the entire extant of the substrate area, or may be formedas regions.

The shield layer or regions 1418 may have terminations within the devicedie scribelanes. The shield layer or regions 1418 may include TLVlanding pads wherein signals from the second layer of devices mayconnect either to a lower shield layer (for example shield layer orregions 1418) or to the interconnect layers or regions of substratemetallization 1408 and BEOL isolation 1410 interconnect or lower layerdevices and circuits. The shield layer or regions 1418 may be thermallybut not electrically connected or may be thermally and electricallyconnected to the substrate 1400 in a variety of ways.

The scribelanes, for example, scribelane with thermal via stacks andcontinuous shield 1420 and/or scribelane with thermal via stacks and cutshield layer 1422, may be substantially populated with thermal viastacks, which may be formed as thermal via stacks with via landing pads1412 as each metallization and via layer of the regions of substratemetallization 1408 and BEOL isolation 1410 interconnect layers areformed, or the thermal vias in the scribelane 1414 may be formed as anetched and filled deep-via prior to the formation of the shield layer orregions 1418. Forming the thermal via stack after the regions ofsubstrate metallization 1408 and BEOL isolation 1410 interconnect layersare formed may provide the use of a different BEOL isolation material,material that may be more thermally isolative and/or thermally stable,for the thermal via stacks than for the devices. The thermal vias in thescribelane 1414 may also be formed as one or a few to substantially fill(with appropriate stress relief structures) the scribelane with metal(thermally conductive) material (as much as practical given CMP dishingdesign rules) that may be part of the shield layer formation, or may beformed in a separate metal deposition and planarization step and mayprovide use of a more thermally conductive material than copper oraluminum to form the thermal vias in the scribelane 1414, for example,carbon nanotubes, Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposited Diamond LikeCarbon-PECVD DLC (about 1000 W/m-K), and Chemical Vapor Deposited (CVD)graphene (about 5000 W/m-K).

As dictated by design choices, the thermal vias (such as, for example,substantially all or a portion of thermal via stacks with via landingpads 1412 and/or thermal vias in the scribelane 1414, and/or in-diethermal via stacks 1416 and/or fill-in thermal paths 1417) may truncatein a dielectrically isolated or reverse biased junction electricallyisolated connection to the substrate, or the thermal vias may truncateas a conventional forward biased junction or no junction substratecontact that may be thermally and electrical connected to the substrate.Processing, structure, and operational details are in referencedapplications.

In-die thermal via stacks 1416 (may also be called in-die thermal viapaths) may also be constructed over the regions of substrate devices1402 (within die extant 1424) by forming a via stack that utilizes theinterconnect structures of the regions of substrate metallization 1408and BEOL isolation 1410 interconnect layers, with a via connection 1419from the shield layer to a metallization layer/segment within theregions of substrate metallization 1408 and BEOL isolation 1410interconnect layers. Via connection 1419 may be connected at a laterstep to electrically couple to the second layer devices (such as a TLV),or may primarily enable (as part of a thermal path) a thermal connectionfrom substrate 1400 to shield layer or regions 1418. Details of thisformation have been described in referenced applications.

Additionally, as a matter of design choice and may be controlled by anEDA design and placement algorithm, fill-in thermal paths 1417 may beadded to a chip die design/layout to maximize local and die averagethermal conductivity. The fill-in thermal paths 1417 may be formedanywhere on the die and from any level of the regions of substratemetallization 1408 and BEOL isolation 1410 interconnect layers to thesubstrate 1400, for example, metal 4 to substrate, metal 3 to substrate,and so on). Fill-in thermal paths 1417 may be added to a power or groundline as extra thermal connections to the substrate 1400, which may beelectrically conductive or non-conductive due to design constraints.Fill-in thermal paths 1417 may be additional connections beyond what aconventional design or EDA tool may provide/construct. Fill-in thermalpaths 1417 may be added to/formed in so called ‘white space’ within thedevice die, where there may be a path vertically and horizontally thruthe regions of substrate metallization 1408 and BEOL isolation 1410interconnect layers to the substrate 1400. Moreover, fill-in thermalpaths 1417 may be formed from the CMP fill structures of one or more ofthe regions of substrate metallization 1408 and BEOL isolation 1410interconnect layers.

As a matter of design choice, die seal 1406 (or die seal-ring) may beutilized as a thermal connection from either interconnect metal layersof the ring itself or the shield layer or regions 1418 to the substrate1400.

Lower isolation layer 1430 may be deposited on top of shield layer orregions 1418 to protect and electrically and partially thermally isolateabove and below and may include the bonding oxides for an ion-cut layertransfer process (for the case wherein TRL 1440 is formed on a donorwafer or substrate). Lower isolation layer 1430 may include designed-invoids (not shown), for example, by etch removal of portions of lowerisolation layer 1430, thus forming regions of vacuum and/or gas andregions of the remaining material (for example, silicon oxide) of lowerisolation layer 1430. The voids may be formed such that they extendfully or partially thru the entire thickness lower isolation layer 1430.The presence of the voids may reduce the average thermal conductivity oflower isolation layer 1430. The voids may include greater than about 5%,greater than about 10%, greater than about 20%, or greater than about50% of the area and/or volume of lower isolation layer 1430, thusaffecting the total average lower isolation layer 1430 thermalconductivity by greater than about 5%, or greater than about 50%.

Continuing with the FIG. 7C illustration, TRL 1440 may be formed on topof lower isolation layer 1430. TRL1440 may be etched (partially orfully) to form TRL regions (not shown).

TRL 1440 formation may include deposition of an amorphous silicon or apolysilicon film, or a combination of the two. The deposition mayutilize deposition techniques and processes that will not thermally harmthe underlying metallization and/or dielectric BEOL isolation materialsand structure, which for copper and/or aluminum metallization and low-kdielectrics are generally less than 400° C. temperature exposures.Techniques, such as sputtering, PECVD, etc., may be utilized. TRL 1440may have a thickness that would accomplish the effective resistivitymetric at the frequency(ies) of interest for the circuit design asdiscussed previously herein, and may be, for example, about 5 nm, about10 nm, about 20nm, about 30 nm, about 50 nm about 100 nm, about 200 nm,or about 500 nm thick.

TRL 1440 formation may include damaging the surface and a top layer of,for example, a deposited layer of silicon or a layer transferred siliconlayer, or of lower isolation layer 1430, thus creating a damage layer(or regions if masked or etched) Damage may be caused by ionimplantation, for example, such as an Argon ion-implant of about 10¹⁵atoms/cm². Plasma sheath, or plasma source ion implantation may beutilized. Preferably the implantation is configured to damage and notdope the layer, the objective being to provide as high an effectiveresistivity as possible. The dose and energy may be set to bring thedamaged layer close to or completely amorphize the crystalline structureof the damaged layer or region.

TRL 1440 formation may include deposition of a silicon rich siliconoxide, a silicon rich silicon nitride, and may include deposition of asiliconoxynitride film. TRL 1440 formation may include deposition of acarbon or carbon rich film, for example, amorphous carbon, disorderedgrapheme, DLC (Diamond Like Carbon), disordered carbon nanotube mats, orSiCO. TRL 1440 formation may include some of the materials formed increation of the TIL layer of incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 9,023,688 thathave a high trap density, for example, forming nanoscale layered oxidesor layers of disordered nanostructured materials.

TRL 1440 may be formed thicker than the desired end thickness, and thenthinned by, for example, CMP processing or etching, to the desired endthickness, or for the purposes of smoothing the surface to enableimproved bonding.

A pre-layer-transfer anneal may be performed as part of the TRL 1440formation process or after the formation of TRL 1440, and may include athermal anneal equal to or greater than the maximum temperature that theTRL 1440 would see during subsequent processing, for example, during the3DIC stack processing, including layer transfer/bonding,transistor/device formation, activation anneals, and so on as long asthe TRL formation temperature does not exceed the damage temperature ofunderlying structures, which may be less than about 400° C., or lessthan about 350° C., for copper and low-k BEOL materials and structures.If higher temperature metals and dielectrics are utilized in theconstruction of the acceptor substrate 1497, for example, tungsten andsilicon dioxide, greater temperatures to form the TRL 1440 may beavailable. The ramp up and cool down rates may be carefully controlleddepending on the type and condition of material in TRL 1440 to minimizecracking, outgassing effects, and other stress effects on the stack. Thetime of the pre-layer-transfer anneal at maximum temperature (theprocess exposure maximum) may be less than about 30 minutes, or lessthan about 1 hour, or less than about 2 hours.

Continuing as illustrated in FIG. 7C, the top surface of the donor waferstack that may include acceptor substrate 1497, may be prepared foroxide wafer bonding with a deposition of a low temperature oxide to formcapping/bonding layer 1431.

The SOI donor wafer substrate 1401 stack, such as surface 1482 (shown inFIG. 7B), and acceptor wafer 1497 (first shown in FIG. 7C) may beprepared for wafer bonding as previously described in the incorporatedreferences and low temperature (less than about 400° C.) bonded.

As illustrated in FIG. 7D, bonding oxide layer 1471, back channel layer1405, BOX layer 1403 and remaining channel layer 1407 may be layertransferred to acceptor wafer 1497. Donor wafer bonding oxide layer 1471and acceptor wafer 1497 capping/bonding layer 1431 may be oxide to oxidebonded, thus forming upper isolation layer 1432. The portion of the SOIdonor wafer substrate 1401 that may be above (when the layer stack isflipped over and bonded to the acceptor wafer 1497) the layer transferdemarcation plane 1499 may be removed by cleaving or other lowtemperature processes as described in the incorporated references, suchas, for example, ion-cut with mechanical or thermal cleave or otherlayer transfer methods, thus forming remaining channel layer 1407.

Formation of transistors and devices on the layer being processed 1460without harming the underlying structures of acceptor wafer 1497 mayproceed with a variety of methods. For example, as disclosed in at leastFIGS. 33 and 46 and related specification sections of incorporated byreference U.S. Pat. No. 8,574,929, transistors may be formed with anintegrated heat shields and optical annealing For example, formation ofCMOS in one transferred layer and the orthogonal connect stripmethodology may be found as illustrated in at least FIGS. 30-33, 73-80,and 94 and related specification sections of U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610,and may be applied. Low temperature and/or heat shielded 3D stackingtransistor formation techniques may help preserve the effectiveness ofthe trap rich layer by not significantly annealing the defects andtraps.

The exemplary flow herein FIG. 7 is utilizing a similar transistorformation technique as described in incorporated U.S. Pat. No.9,023,688, by utilizing a TIL, which may be integrated with TRL 1440/TRLregions 1441, on the top or bottom face, or both. Or may be one in thesame (shown). Many conventional semiconductor processing steps may nowbe utilized to form transistors and devices on the layer being processed1460 without harming the underlying structures of acceptor wafer 1497,for example, a deposition or anneal may be performed at 800° C. on layerbeing processed 1460. Heat removal from the substrate, for example, suchas via a cooled chuck, is described in incorporated U.S. Pat. No.9,023,688.

Processing similar to the processing and transistor/device formationsuch as, for example, illustrated in FIGS. 6D to 6G and described inrelated specification sections herein, or many other semiconductorprocesses and steps, may be performed. For example, as illustrated inFIG. 7E, an exemplary FD-MOSFET structure may be formed. The structures,numerals and labels may be common between FIGS. 6A-6G and FIGS. 7A-7Ewith just the first number adjusted to match the present figure.

Formation of CMOS in one transferred layer and the orthogonal connectstrip methodology may be found as illustrated in at least FIGS. 30-33,73-80, and 94 and related specification sections of U.S. Pat. No.8,273,610, and may be applied to at least the FIG. 7 formationtechniques herein. Transferred layer or layers may have regions of STIor other transistor elements within it or on it when transferred, butwould then use alignment and connection schemes for layer transfer ofpatterned layers as described in incorporated patent references.

Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that theillustrations in FIGS. 7A through 7E are exemplary only and are notdrawn to scale. Such skilled persons will further appreciate that manyvariations are possible such as, for example, a p-channel FD-MOSFET maybe formed with changing the types of dopings appropriately. Moreover,the SOI donor wafer substrate 1401 may be n type or un-doped.Furthermore, transistor and back channel isolation regions 1485 andtransistor isolation region 1487 may be formed by a hard mask definedprocess flow, wherein a hard mask stack, such as, for example, siliconoxide and silicon nitride layers, or silicon oxide and amorphous carbonlayers, may be utilized. Moreover, CMOS FD MOSFETs may be constructedwith n-MOSFETs in a first mono-crystalline silicon layer and p-MOSFETsin a second mono-crystalline layer, which may include differentcrystalline orientations of the mono-crystalline silicon layers, such asfor example, <100>, <111> or <551>, and may include different contactsilicides for optimum contact resistance to p or n type source, drains,and gates. Further, dopant segregation techniques (DST) may be utilizedto efficiently modulate the source and drain Schottky barrier height forboth p and n type junctions formed. Furthermore, raised source and draincontact structures, such as etch and epi SiGe and SiC, may be utilizedfor strain and contact resistance improvements and the damage from theprocesses may be optically annealed. Moreover, a process could be doneon bulk donor wafer rather than an SOI wafer as well to form other typesof transistors without integrated body/back-channel layer/regions.Additionally, the layer transfer process may utilize a method other thanion-cut, for example, a porous layer or selectively etchable layer,detach layer method. Furthermore, a process could be done to form othertypes of transistors on the layer to be processed 1460, for example,FinFets or TFETs. Many other modifications within the scope of theinvention will suggest themselves to such skilled persons after readingthis specification. Thus the invention is to be limited only by theappended claims

The acceptor wafer herein or in the incorporated references may includea top or near top low-k dielectric layer or layers, as part of the BEOLprocessing and formation. The low-k dielectrics utilized may have alower physical strength, for example as represented by its Young'sModulus, than desired to enable a defect free bond and/or cleave of atransferred layer. Use of a TRL and/or a TIL may also provide a weakerstructure than desired. Preparation for bonding and/or cleaving mayinclude structures and/or materials which include the purpose ofenhancing the physical strength and/or cracking resistance of the stackstructure, especially the bond plane and the acceptor wafer BEOL layers.The top BEOL layer or layers dielectrics may utilize a strongerdielectric material, for example fluorinated oxides or undoped oxides.Furthermore, strengthening regions may be placed within the BEOL, TIL,TRL and/or acceptor wafer to stiffen and/or mechanically strengthen the3DIC structure. Strengthening regions may provide smaller regions of thesofter and weaker low-dielectrics and may mitigate cracking and fractureinitiation and/or propagation. Strengthening regions may includematerials that have a higher Young's modulus than the majority of thematerial within acceptor wafer BEOL, or any TIL or TRL. For example,strengthening regions may include, for example, silicon oxide, which hasa higher mechanical strength than, for example, most low-k dielectrics,such as SiCO, aerogels and silsesquioxanes. Strengthening regions mayinclude less than about 0.5%, less than about 1%, less than about 2%,less than about 5% or less than about 10% of the area and/or volume ofBEOL, or any TIL or TRL. Strengthening regions may include thescribelanes of the wafer, the scribelanes may be processed with stiffermaterial during its formation as part of the process flow, or thematerial within the scribelane may be removed and replaced with astiffer material before layer transfer of a layer above. Moreoverstrengthening regions may be designed to be aligned to the scribelanesand may underlap the full extent of the scribelanes by an underlap,which may be the layout distance between the acceptor die seal and theedge of the closest strengthening regions. For example, the underlap mayhave the dimension of 0 or at least about 1 um, at least about 5 um, atleast about 10 um, at least about 20 um, at least about 50 um. A similarstrengthening strategy may be employed on a second layer of device andcircuits when bonding and cleaving a ‘third’ layer on top of the secondlayer. A portion of the strengthening regions may be replaced after thelayer transfer. More teaching on strengthening regions may be found inat least incorporated reference U.S. Pat. No. 9,023,688.

An embodiment of the invention may include various modification of theprocess flows described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610 in relation to atleast FIGS. 70A-70F, 81A-81F, 82A-82G, 83A-83L. These flows may startwith a donor wafer which may go through a normal process flow to form acircuit layer which we could call stratum-3. The described flow suggeststhe use of a ‘gate-replacement’ flow, also called ‘gate-last’ flow fortransistor formation, although other structures/techniques may beutilized. The stratum-3 layer would be first transferred, for example,using ion-cut, to a carrier wafer/substrate and then transferred on topof a target wafer (also called base or acceptor wafer/substrate in somecircumstances). Once on top of the target wafer the dummy oxide and thedummy gate could be replaced with the gate last gate stack of, forexample, hafnium oxide and metal gate. This flow provides the advantagethat any damage caused by the ion-cut would be removed by thereplacement step. In an embodiment the replacement oxide and gate couldbe made with silicon oxide and poly gate which are in most cases cheaperand easier to process. So the repair of the ion-cut potential damage isnot a condition of having high-K metal gate process. It should be notedthat once stratum-3 is bonded on the target wafer the temperaturelimitation, generally restricted to less than 400° C., due to theunderlying structure does exist. Therefore, a process should be used forthe deposition of a high quality gate oxide at the metallizationcompatible temperatures. Furthermore, the dummy gate stack may bereplaced after the ion-cut by other types of gate stacks; for example,such as a grown or deposited oxide/dielectric with apolysilicon/polycide electrode, or a grown or deposited oxide/dielectricwith a tungsten electrode. Such processes have been presented in atleast U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610.

While ion-cut is a good option for cutting a less than a micron thicklayer from the donor wafer transferring it to the carrier wafer, otherlayer transfer options do exist. It also should be noted that thetransferred layer could had been fully processed first to includetransistors and isolation, or alternatively the transferred layer mightbe just a mono-crystal layer, giving up stratum-3 in the layer transfer.

In the following we outline few alternative process flows to ion-cutavailable for transferring a layer from a donor wafer to either acarrier wafer or to the final target wafer:

A. Use of donor wafer that has been pre-processed for a future cut/layertransfer such as:

1) Pre-cut by laser, as described in at least US patent application US2014/003839—this patent publication is hereby incorporated by referencein this application;

2) Use an SOI wafer or construct an SOI wafer;

3) Use an ELTRAN treated wafer with a porous layer before the top highquality layer, or construct an ELTRAN wafer;

4) Use a wafer with etch stop indicators pre-defined (LTDP-LayerTransfer Demarcation Plugs) as is been described in relation to FIG. 150of incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610.

B. Use a laser, as described in US patent application 2014/0038392, tocut the desired transfer layer off the donor wafer after high (over 400°C.) processes for stratum-3 are completed.C. Use ‘Cold Split’ technology, for example, as developed and offered bycommercial company called Siltectra (http://www.siltectra.com) and beendescribed in at least US Patent Applications 2011/0259936—this patentpublication is hereby incorporated by reference in this application.

Some of the above techniques are better used for a thicker layer of fewmicrons, generally due to the variability of depth of the ‘cut’ of thetransfer process. So after the transfer layer has been bonded to thecarrier wafer or the target wafer and cut off the donor wafer, anadditional process or processes could be used to thin the transferredlayer further to about one of the following device thickness targets:about 20 nm, or about 50 nm, or about 100 nm, or about 200 mn or about400 nm. Alternatives for such additional processing could include thefollowing:

A. Etch, grind and Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP), which mightinclude some sensing of depth control;B. Etch, grind and Chemical Mechanical Polishing-CMP, which mightinclude an stop indicator scheme, for example, such as described abovewith respect to LTDP;C. Forming an etch stop or other types of a detach layer and thenprocessing an epitaxial layer on which the donor transistors areconstructed. For example, an ion implantation and anneal may be utilizedto form an etch stop layer, either on the donor surface or buried, andthen a device epitaxial layer may be formed on top. A diffusion processmay be utilized to form a doped etch-stop layer, and then a deviceepitaxial layer may be formed on top. An etch-stop layer may include,for example, heavily doped p+ or doped n+ silicon, depending on thechemistries used for selectivity of the etch-stop etching. Etch stoplayer may include a material such as SiGe. Furthermore, a singleepitaxial process may start with a light doping, then switch to a heavydoping (or change type) and then back to a light or undoped epitaxialdeposition, thus forming two or more layers of differing dopantconcentration and/or type. An ‘etch-stop’ may mean a significant(usually greater than a 5-10× etch rate) slowing of the etch removalrate so that control of the endpoint layer and planarity with respect tothe desired device surface may be achieved. Many etch stop techniquesfor layer transfer may be described in at least FIGS. 14, 139-140, and230-232 of incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610.C. Use of a secondary ion-cut of the bonded layer to trim thetransferred layer down to a precisely controlled thickness and thicknessvariation across the wafer/substrate. This does avoid the ion damagefrom the thin layer as the ion implant is done from the back of thetransfer layer. Following the ion cut some etch or CMP should be used tofurther treat the surface.

In addition some anneal might also be used to further treat thetransferred layer for future step.

It should be noted that in most of these alternatives the donor wafercould be treated after the layer transfer to repair the top layersurface and prepare the donor wafer for additional steps of layertransfer.

The secondary ion-cut could be tuned to overcome some limitation of thefirst cut techniques such as un-even thickness of the transferred layer.A measurement tool could be used to create a depth profile of the wafersurface. The depth profile could be then transfer to an ion implantertool which will adjust the ion (H+) implant depth accordingly. Thus aprecise and well controlled ion-cut damage layer, or layer transferdemarcation layer, may be formed in the transferred layer.

This combination of cut techniques could allow for high quality thin (20nm-200 nm) layer transfer. This could be done to a layer that has gonethrough process of complete or partial front end process of stratum-3without damaging the sensitive transistor formation of stratum-3.

To assist the layer depth measurement, the bonding layers could bespecially engineered to enhance the accuracy of such depth profilemeasurement. An example for such could be layering silicon oxide andsilicon nitride to form a reflective layer tuned to reflect a laserwavelength of the measurement tool. Or including a metal layer if thereflective layer is on the target wafer. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,325,incorporated here by reference, such reflective layering is presented.

The donor wafer/substrate with a detach and/or etchstop layer orstructure may be processed in the manufacturing flow and facility of thedevice stack manufacturer, or may be constructed at a wafer supplier andbought by the wafer stack manufacturer as a ‘pre-made’ substrate. Afteruse in the stack formation flow, the wafer stack manufacturer mayperform reclaim or recycle processing on the used donor wafer/substrateor may deliver it back to the wafer supplier for reclaim and/orrecycle—reprocessing may include a fresh detach and/or etchstop layer orstructure in the donor wafer/substrate. For example, a wafer supplier,such as, for example, SunEdison, may process a prime silicon wafer witha porous detach layer covered on one side by an epitaxial layer ofsilicon made to order (thickness, doping, etc.) for the specific waferstack flow and device desired by the wafer stack manufacturer. Thusforming a Si-dDS, a silicon topped detachable donor substrate. The waferstack manufacturer, for example Intel or Samsung, utilizes the Si-dDS ina stack process flow with a detach step, and then returns the usedSi-dDS to SunEdison for recycle or reclaim.

In U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610, FIG. 81(A to F) transferring a full processstratum-3 is described—7032, 7028, 7026, 7030, 7008, from a donor wafer8100 to a target wafer 808.

In FIG. 82 of U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610 transferring the stratum-3layer—8202 off a donor wafer 8206A, first to a carrier wafer 8226 andthen from the donor wafer using a second ion-cut 8218 to the targetwafer 808, is described.

In U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610, FIG. 83(A to K) the transfer of a stratum-3layer—8302+ from a donor wafer 8300A first to a carrier wafer 8320, thenprocess stratum-2—8300+ on the other side of the transferred layer whileit is on the carrier wafer 8320 is described.

And then from the carrier wafer the layer comprising stratum-2 andstratum-3 (as dual strata 400) is transferred on to the target wafer 808using a second ion cut 8321.

The ion-cut may be associated with defects caused by the ion implantprocess. The defects may be repaired with high temperature processing,such as previously described at least herein and in incorporatedreferences, for example, thermal treatments such as RTA, RTO, furnaceannealing, laser annealing. Ion-cut damage to sensitive areas may beavoided by backside ion-cut, by screening the H+(and any co-implant)from the sensitive device areas (gate, source rain junctions, etc.) suchas described in at least FIG. 70B-1 of incorporated reference U.S. Pat.No. 8,273,610. The gate stack may be replaced after the ion-cution-implant, such as described herein and in incorporated references.For example, the dummy gate stack may be replaced by HKMG stack or by anoxide dielectric and poly/polycide gate electrode. The ion-cut ionimplant may also be performed prior to the gate formation if thesubsequent thermal cycles allow such, to avoid premature cleave/release.

Furthermore, alternative cut techniques presented before in respect forthe transfer layer from the donor wafer could be used

Yet the transfer from the carrier wafer opens up more options since:A. The carrier wafer is not the one contributing the device layer andtherefore does not have to have a top layer of high quality to supporttransistor formation accordingly:

1) The carrier wafer may be built from low cost test wafers, which couldbe ground and/or etched away, or other alternatives in some flows(depending on for example thermal and/or sheer stresses of post attachprocessing), for example, glass substrates;

2) The carrier wafer may have a top layer which is designed for detachsuch as:

-   -   a) Porous layer (variation of the ELTRAN technique), which may        be buried by, for example, epitaxial silicon and oxide, thereby        providing an ox-ox bond from carrier to transfer layer, and may        include release ports in the transfer layer scribelanes and/or        interior to each die;    -   b) Other porous structures such as Aerogel materials, and may        include release ports in the transfer layer scribelanes and/or        interior to each die (may include aerogels and techniques        described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/298,917,        incorporated by reference;    -   c) Photo-resist;

3) The carrier wafer could be designed for layer release as described inU.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610 in relation to at least FIG. 184, and/or toFIGS. 185, 186, 187, 188, 189.

4) The carrier wafer may include a top layer which is designed fordetach such as a buried layer of laser damaged silicon, for example,such as described in at least FIG. 5A of U.S. Patent Publication No.2014/0038392 to Yonehera, et al., of Solexel Corporation.

Note: The carrier wafer could be covered with oxide to support goodbonding to the transfer layer. Other bonding layers could also be used.B. There is a natural barrier between the carrier wafer and thetransferred layer carrying stratum-2 and stratum-3 (dual strata 400)—thebonding layer. The bonding layer could be an oxide and would provide anetch stop. Accordingly the whole carrier wafer could be ground or etchedaway to that oxide layer after the bonding to the target wafer.Alternatively if any of the other techniques is used to cut thetransferred layer from the carrier wafer and if such might leave someportion still attached, then it could be easily etched away. Forexample, forming a thin buried etch-stop layer within the carrier wafer,either buried or at the surface (and then coat with oxide for an ox-oxbond) may be utilized. In most cases this will be cheaper than the useof a secondary ion-cut as presented before in respect to the flow withthe donor wafer.

The release from the carrier wafer may depend on the choice of processand may include any of steps such as: anneal step, mechanical pulling orforce application from top and/or mechanical side stress, water jet toform side stress, laser side stress, knife edge side stress, etching orcooling step (thermal shock or thermal exposure), perforated carrier andselective etchant release as described and referenced herein. Therelease procedure may include providing release ports in the transferlayer scribelanes and/or interior to each die. The release procedure mayutilize a frontside release, may include providing frontside releaseports in the transfer layer scribelanes and/or interior to each die.Release utilizing an oxide layer may include a wet HF, vapor-phase HF, aMEMS style Bosch DRIE etch (alternating SF₆ and C₄F₄ plasma etches).Silicon release etches on the porous silicon may include KOH, XeF₂and/or EDP or TMAH. Substances such as supersaturated CO₂ may help witha stiction free release as well as precise design and spacing of therelease etchant ports.

Furthermore, the carrier wafer/substrate may include etch stopindicators pre-defined (LTDP-Layer Transfer Demarcation Plugs) as isbeen described in relation to FIG. 150 of incorporated U.S. Pat. No.8,273,610. This may be used in combination with other releasetechniques; for example, the Siltectra stress or Solexel laser damagelayer. The LTDPs may assist a ‘rough’ cleave technique (such as theSolexel stress cleave) to have an endpoint that may form a preciselydefined, flat and parallel to the device surface cleave or allow acleanup CMP/etch after a ‘rough’ cleave to have the same.

The carrier wafer/substrate with a detach and/or etchstop layer orstructure may be processed in the manufacturing flow and facility of thedevice stack manufacturer, or may be constructed at a wafer supplier andbought by the wafer stack manufacturer as a ‘pre-made’ substrate. Afteruse in the stack formation flow, the wafer stack manufacturer mayperform reclaim or recycle processing on the used carrierwafer/substrate or may deliver it back to the wafer supplier for reclaimand/or recycle—reprocessing may include a fresh detach and/or etchstoplayer or structure in the carrier wafer/substrate. For example, a wafersupplier, such as, for example, SunEdison, may process a test or primesilicon wafer with a porous detach layer covered on one side by a thinepitaxial layer of silicon and a thick layer of oxide, ready for ox-oxbonding. Thus forming an Ox-dCS, an oxide topped detachable carriersubstrate. The wafer stack manufacturer, for example Intel or Samsung,utilizes the Ox-dCS in a stack process flow with a detach step, and thenmay return the used Ox-dCS to SunEdison for recycle or reclaim.

Vertical isolation between Stratum-2 and Stratum-3 devices may be amatter of design, layout and process flow choices. An oxide layer and/orregions may provide some isolation between stratum-2 devices fromstratum-3 devices, and may include process that may include, forexample, an SOI donor wafer/substrate, the donor wafer/substrate maystart as a bulk silicon wafer and utilize an oxygen implantation andthermal anneal to form a buried oxide layer, such as, for example, theSIMOX process (i.e., separation by implantation of oxygen) or anMLD-SIMOX (modified low dose SIMOX) approach such as DK Sandana, or adouble layer transfer with oxide deposition in between to form dualstrata layer. Furthermore, for example, a pn junction may be formedbetween the vertically stacked transistors and may be biased. Also, asilicon-on-replacement-insulator technique may be utilized for the firstformed dummy transistors wherein a buried SiGe layer may be selectivelyetched out and refilled with oxide, thereby creating islands ofelectrically isolated silicon, similar to the 2D process known asSioN—‘Silicon on Nothing’. Vertical isolation may be obtained somewhatnaturally from a structure in one or more of a stratum-2 or stratum-3device, for example, the buried back-bias layer/regions of a ZenoSemiconductor NVM cell, a deep implanted layer or region, biased orun-biased as required between stratum-2 and stratum-3. Verticalisolation may occur due to placement of stratum-2 and stratum-3 devices,for example, a layout rule could require no high speed logic overanother high speed logic cell or region, but may allow a memory to beover the logic cell or region.

Additional embodiments are device structures that leverage this frontand back layer processing to enable effective device structuresincluding vertical device options. Vertical devices may include, forexample, memory (V-NAND, V-RRAM, Bi-ristor) as well as devices such asGate All Around transistors, vertical junction-less transistors,nano-wire, CNT, vertical bipolar, and so on. Some vertical structuresand devices may be found in at least incorporated reference U.S. Pat.No. 8,273,610.

After the pre-injection, epitaxial growth may be carried out attemperatures of about 90˜1000° C. The epitaxial layer illustrated as epilayer 2536 in FIG. 8 could be grown to a few nm thick layer, forexample, such as 5 nm or 10 nm, to a moderately thick layer, such as,for example, 100 nm or 200 nm, to a relatively thick layer, such as, forexample, 1 micron, or 3 microns thick.

The ELTRAN based donor wafer 2531 could be then provided as a substratefor a standard processing flow. An important advantage is that theELTRAN donor wafer could withstand the high temperature of aconventional front line process and not detach. There are multipleprocess steps in a typical conventional front-line process withprocessing temperatures ranging from 500° C. to about 1000° C. in whichtransistors and their contacts are formed.

FIG. 9A illustrates donor wafer 2641 which includes base wafer 2640 withlower porous layer 2644 and upper porous layer 2642 and an epitaxiallayer/regions 2646, which has gone through front line processing toconstruct at least N type transistors 2648 and P type transistors 2649and shallow trench isolations—STI 2647, in between.

FIG. 9B of the donor wafer 2651 now illustrates the donor layer 2653with N type and P type transistors covered with planarizing oxide 2652.

Such a donor layer, for example donor wafer 2651, could be transferredonto a carrier wafer for further high temperature processing as will bepresented later or be prepared by adding contacts and at least a firstmetal for transfer onto a target wafer, as described below and in FIGS.10A-10D.

FIG. 10A of the donor wafer 2761 now illustrates the donor layer with Ntype and P type transistors 2663 contacted thru planarizing oxide 2652and an added metal one (shown as metal layer structures 2717) and thencovered with oxide 2762.

The donor wafer 2761 could be now flipped and bonded on top of thetarget wafer 808 as is illustrated in FIG. 10B. The bonding could beoxide to oxide bonding or hybrid bonding where some of metal layers ofthe contacted and metalized donor layer 2763 would bond to top metallanding connections which are part of the target wafer 808 as describedelsewhere herein and in incorporated references. This flow couldleverage the new class of precision bonders such as one being offered bythe Austrian company EVG named Gemini FB XT. Such bonder could align thedonor wafer 2761 to the target wafer 808 with better than 200 nm waferto wafer alignment. For many applications such alignment is sufficient.In other applications the smart alignment described in at least U.S.Pat. No. 8,273,610 as related to its FIG. 77 or FIG. 80 and relateddescription could be used after the removal of the donor wafer leavingthe donor wafer on the target wafer as illustrated in FIG. 10C. This isalso been described in a paper by Or-Bach et al titled “PrecisionBonders—Game Changer for Monolithic 3D” at the 2014 IEEE S3S Conference2014, incorporated herein by reference.

FIG. 10C illustrates the removal of the donor wafer leveraging theporous layer in-between as a cut layer. The cutting of the porous layersis also called splitting. The porous silicon layer in the bonded wafercould have been illustrated as a double layered structure. The bondedwafer is split parallel to its surface close to the interface betweenthese two layers using a water jet method. There many alternativemethods for performing the split including simple mechanical pulling.These could also combine an etching step or steps as the porousstructure etch-rate is highly accelerated. Also, specially designeddonor wafers, such as described in at least U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610 asit relates to FIG. 184, may be utilized for a backside detach.

The dual porous layers helps to achieve a very clean split as thereborder between the two porous layers tend to be a natural cut-plane. Theresidue of porous structure could be etch away, using a solutioncontaining a mixture of HF, H₂O₂ and H₂O. Once a certain incubationperiod has passed, the porous silicon is etched virtually all at once.The selectivity of this etching is as high as 100,000×, meaning that theetching does not cause significant degradation of the uniformity of thethickness of the remaining layer. This means that the donor wafer 2783could be recycled for reuse and the transferred layer 2773 is now readyfor future processing as is illustrated in FIG. 10D. The donor wafer isaccordingly a reusable donor wafer and more specifically a porous layerbased reusable donor wafer. It should be noted that these illustrationare not presenting the layers in thickness proportion. Both the donorwafer 2783 and the target wafer 808 may be about 700 μm thick. The donorlayer and some of the interconnection layer 2793 at the upper part ofthe target wafer 808 are few tens of nm to a few microns thick dependingon the choice of process line and other considerations.

In addition to the removal of the porous layer by etch a hydrogenannealing could be used to further smooth the top layer surface.

Now additional interconnection could be added on top of 3D structure2791. First through layer vias need to be formed to provide access tothe transistors in the transferred layer 2793 which we could callStratum-2, and to the underlying target wafer 808 circuitry. Theprefabricated metal 1 of Stratum-2 2796 may be designed so these throughsilicon vias could be made without interfering with transistors ofStratum-2 (for example, similar to 2092 in FIG. 20 and 1947/1967 in FIG.19J of the parent application).

Another alternative is to transfer the donor layer first to a carrierwafer and then from the carrier wafer to the target wafer. The ELTRANprocess could be used also for the carrier wafer.

FIG. 11A illustrates such a carrier wafer 2801 is processed very muchlike the donor wafer. But since the carrier wafer does not need toprovide a donor layer its epitaxial process is minimal or even skippedand an oxide layer is deposited and/or formed by oxidation of the toplayer to form the bonding oxide layer 2806. Carrier wafer 2801 mayinclude lower porous layer 2802 and upper porous layer 2804.

FIG. 11B illustrates the donor wafer with n and p transistors 2811bonded on top of the carrier wafer. It might be preferred to have theporosity of the donor wafer porous layers 2816 and 2818 constructed witha much higher porosity than that of the carrier wafer porous layers 2812and 2814, so the split of the donor wafer would not impact the carrierwafer attachment.

Now the donor wafer would be removed leaving the donor layer 2813 on thecarrier wafer as illustrated by FIG. 11C.

The split and the removal of the porous layer and cleaning the surfacecould be done similar to presented before in respect to FIG. 10C andFIG. 10D resulting as illustrated by FIG. 11C with a ready for reusedonor wafer 2828 and a carrier wafer 2821 with donor layer 2823. Anoxide layer may be deposited and/or formed by oxidation of the top layerof the donor layer 2823 to form bonding oxide layer 2826.

FIG. 11D is illustrating carrier wafer 2831 flipped and bonded onto thetarget wafer 808. Now the carrier wafer may be split off, leveraging theporous layer 2812 and 2814 again such as was described before inrelation to FIGS. 10C and 10D, and the left over porous layer could beremoved and cleaned as was described before. The carrier wafer could berecycled for reuse. The carrier wafer is accordingly a reusable carrierwafer and more specifically a porous based reusable carrier wafer.

FIG. 11E illustrates the resulting 3DIC structure 2841 including thetarget wafer 808 with an additional stratum of transistors layer 2843covered with additional oxide layer 2846. Additional interconnectionlayer or layers could now be processed starting with a through layer viato connect the new stratum 2843 to the target wafer 808 circuitry.

The described flow allows the processing of the additional stratum ofthe donor layer 2843 to be done in a conventional front line withoutlimiting the frontline processing temperatures. The transistorformation, STI and contact formation are done before the donor layer istransferred on top of the copper or aluminum interconnect which might bepart of the target wafer 808 interconnect. The use of a precision bonderwith an ELTRAN based layer transfer as presented provides monolithic3DICs with very rich vertical interconnect. The donor layer 2843thickness could be as thin as about 10 nm or thicker as about 20 nm or80 nm or even few hundreds nm, such as, for example, about 100 nm or 200nm. The through layer via through it may have a small diameter such asabout 20 nm, 50 nm, 100 nm or even larger than 200 nm. This flow couldintegrate in many of the benefit of other flows described herein orincorporated and related patents.

Additional alternative is to use additional process steps to make thecarrier wafer more resistive to an undesired split while the donor waferis being split off.

Accordingly for the processing of the carrier wafer 2801 after formingthe porous layers 2802 and 2804 the step of forming the oxide bondinglayer 2806, oxide 2956 will include covering the carrier wafer sidewalls with oxide 2958 as illustrated in FIG. 12A. The improved carrierwafer 2951 is now ready for the transfer of the donor layer.

FIG. 12B illustrates the improved carrier wafer 2965 after having thedonor wafer 2961 bonded top of it similar to what was been presented inFIG. 11B. The improved carrier wafer has protective sidewalls 2968.These sidewalls may include thickness of few tens of nm (for exampleabout 10 nm or 40 nm) to few micrometers thick (for example about 1 umor 3 um). The donor wafer 2961 may include the two porous layers 2962and 2964 and the donor layer 2963 which include transistors and may alsoinclude contacts and first metal similar to what was presented before.

Now the bulk donor wafer may be split off leveraging the porous layers2962 and 2964 while the carrier wafer 2965 may be protected by its sidewalls 2968. The porous residue could be removed and cleaned similarly tothe discussion before making the donor wafer reusable for future use.

After the porous silicon layers 2964 and 2962 have been removed byselective etching, a heat treatment in a hydrogen-containing atmospherecould be carried out for smoothing the back-side of the donor layer2963, now on top/facing up. The resulting structure is illustrated inFIG. 12C.

The protective side walls could be now removed in preparation oftransferring the donor layer 2963 onto the target wafer 808 as has beenillustrated in relation to FIG. 11D and FIG. 12E.

Yet in another alternative while the donor layer is still on the carrierwafer the other side of the donor layer could be processed to form anadditional stratum of transistors as illustrated in FIG. 12D.

FIG. 12D illustrates the carrier wafer 2985 after removal of theprotective sidewalls 2968 with donor layer 2983 bonded on top. The donorlayer 2983 now include the first stratum of transistors 2986 that wecould call stratum-3 and the new stratum now processed 2988 we will callstratum-2, with contact and at least first metal. The structure may nowbe covered with isolation/bonding layer which could be oxide 2989.

It should be noted that attention should be given for proper interactionbetween stratum-2 and stratum-3. This will depend on the type oftransistors and circuits built on both strata. Many options existincluding reverse diode of the medium in between stratum-2 and stratum-3to provide vertical isolation between strata 2 and 3transistors/devices, use of back-bias of one stratum as isolation fromthe other, use of Fin-FET transistors and others. This had beendescribed in detail elsewhere herein.

The donor wafer could then be transferred on top of the target wafer808, splitting off the carrier wafer 2985 for reuse as was describedbefore in relation to FIG. 11D and FIG. 12E. A resulting 3DIC isillustrated in FIG. 12E. The target wafer 2995 has now bonded to it adonor layer 2993 comprising stratum-2 2998 on the lower side andstratum-3 2996 on the other side—the top side. The donor layer 2993could be relatively thin, for example about 10-20 nm thick or thickersuch as, for example, about 100 nm or even 1-2 micrometers. The donorlayer 2993 is still thin enough to lithographically align through it tothe target wafer 808 structures and alignment marks, allowing state ofthe art alignment tolerances, for example 2 nm, 4 nm, or 6 nm. The donorlayer 2993 may include its own alignment marks. The through layer via(TLV) could be now made to connect stratum-2 and stratum-3 circuits tothe target wafer 808 circuits (as has been described elsewhere herein).The through layer vias diameter could be accordingly very small. Forexample, such as about 20 nm or 40 nm, or larger such as about 100 nm oreven 400 nm, similarly to as been described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610such as relates to its FIG. 83.

FIG. 13A to FIG. 13F illustrates an additional process flow. Thestarting point may be similar to the structure illustrated by FIGS. 8.FIG. 13A illustrates a base donor substrate 3010 after forming twoporous layers; upper layer of porous silicon 3014, which may containmicroscopic pores of diameter of a few nm, and below this is formed alower layer of porous silicon 3012 for which the pore diameter may be afew (or more) times greater, for the future ‘cut’ or cleave.

In this alternative flow the epitaxial step for formation of the firstepitaxial layer 2536 could be used to build a thick first epitaxiallayer 3020 as is illustrated in FIG. 13B. Now a new step of porousformation could take place. The new formed first epitaxial layer 3020could be made partly porous using a porous formation process, perhaps asdescribed earlier herein. FIG. 13C illustrates the structure afterward,first epitaxial layer 3020 is now partially still remainingmonocrystalline layer 3022 while first epitaxial layer 3020's upper partis now made porous, illustrated as second porous layer 3024. Thethickness of second porous layer 3024 and first epitaxial layer 3020could be as thin as few nanometer (nm) to tens of micrometers (μm); forexample, about 5 nm, about 10 nm, about 20 nm, about 100 nm, about 200nm, about 500 nm, about 1 um, about 2 um, about 5 um, about 10 um, about20 um, or about 50 um. Remaining monocrystalline layer 3022 and secondporous layer 3024 could be constructed to be (or resulting thickness be)of similar thickness or substantially different. This could be designedaccording to the target application. For example, for photo voltaicapplications tens of μm might be desired while for advanced fullydepleted SOI (Silicon on Insulator) transistor layer(s) about 10 nmcould be desired. For example, remaining monocrystalline layer 3022 andsecond porous layer 3024 thicknesses may include about 2 nm, about 5 nm,about 10 nm, about 20 nm, about 100 nm, about 200 nm, about 500 nm,about 1 um, about 2 um, about 5 um, about 10 um, or about 20 um.

Forming second porous layer 3024 could be done using similar processesdescribed before in respect to the formation of upper layer of poroussilicon 3014, which may contain microscopic pores of diameter of a fewnm, and lower layer of porous silicon 3012 for which the pore diametermay be a few (or more) times greater. In such case care needs to be madethat the early lower layers, such as in this illustration lower layerporous silicon 3012 and upper layer porous silicon 3014, are not fullyoxidized. This will allow the current flow to layer 3020 from the back,thus enabling an efficient anodization process, which may involvepassing a current through a solution of HF and ethanol with the basesingle-crystal silicon wafer 3010 as the anode. Alternatively vias couldbe formed connecting the two crystalline layers, for example, theillustrated base donor substrate 3010 and first epitaxial layer 3020.Additionally, side wall vertical connection may be temporarily made withconductive attachments, and/or semi-permanent thru conductive side wallplaced vias/regions (with appropriate isolation coverings), which maydouble as sidewall cleave protection regions to prevent unintendedcleaving.

Yet, another alternative is to use alternative methods of porous layerformation processing. Such processes could be using “stain EtchingProcess” as presented in article titled: “Electrochemical Behaviour ofPorous Silicon Layers Prepared by Stain Etching Processes” by F. A. BenHandera at al. Journal of New Materials for Electrochemical Systems 6,129-135 (2003), incorporated herein by reference.

As illustrated in FIG. 13D, a follow-on step could be oxidizing thenewly formed second porous layer 3024. And then formation of a secondepitaxial layer 3032 as illustrated in FIG. 13D may be done. The secondepitaxial layer 3032 could be made very thin like 10 nm or thicker offew tens nm to even few or tens of μm. For example, second epitaxiallayer 3032 could be as thin as few nanometer (nm) to tens of micrometers(μm); for example, about 5 nm, about 10 nm, about 20 nm, about 100 nm,about 200 nm, about 500 nm, about 1 um, about 2 um, about 5 um, about 10um, about 20 um, or about 50 um. The oxidation and the second epitaxiallayer could be made similarly to the process described before in respectto FIGS. 23-25.

The second epitaxial layer 3032 could now be processed to formtransistors. As illustrated in FIG. 30E, second epitaxial processedlayer 3033 may include STI (Shallow Trench Isolation) 3037, N typetransistors 3038 and P type transistors 3039. This processing couldutilize a conventional transistor front line process and could includeall the high temperature steps required including silicidation process,raised source/drains, strain, and contact formation to thesetransistors. IBM U.S. Pat. No. 7,365,399, incorporated herein byreference, teaches a flow of forming transistors over porous isolation.The transistors formed could include many types of transistors, forexample, such as fully depleted SOI and/or FinFET, or many other typesof other transistors at least as described herein and in theincorporated references. Second porous layer 3024 which may be disposedbetween the two crystalline layers, remaining monocrystalline layer 3022and second epitaxial layer 3032 (or second epitaxial processed layer3033 if processed), could be fully oxidized at least either before thesecond epitaxial step or afterward may be etched into porous regions(for example, as part of the formation of the STI 3037), andsubsequently oxidized (from the side) to form oxide regions. Secondporous layer 3024 or regions of it formed by etch could also be etchedaway and filled with oxide or other isolating material. Thus the twocrystalline layers, remaining monocrystalline layer 3022 and secondepitaxial processed layer 3033, could be made isolated and allow greaterflexibility with future circuits on each of these layers. Secondepitaxial processed layer 3033 may be called Stratum-3.

This could make the structure illustrated in FIG. 13D, a desirablesubstrate product 3030 which could be provided by substrate providers tothe processing foundries and other wafer fabs. Substrate product 3030may include second epitaxial layer 3032, second porous layer 3024,remaining monocrystalline layer 3022, upper layer of porous silicon3014, lower layer of porous silicon 3012, base donor substrate 3010. Itmight be desirable to protect the two crystalline layers, remainingmonocrystalline layer 3022 and second epitaxial layer 3032,sub-structure of substrate product 3030. An optional protection could beformed similar to the side protection 2958 as was presented in respectto FIG. 29A.

The process flow of FIGS. 13A-13F could be attractive to a large rangeof applications for forming layers of transistors, such as Stratum-2 andStratum-3, as described herein and incorporated references. These layerswould be provided with very good vertical isolation and could alloweffectively a wide range of transistors stacked in 3D including thesethat require very thin silicon on insulator (SOI) such as Fully DepletedSOI or FinFET over SOI. The formation of the transistors, for example,such as N type transistors 3038 and P type transistors 3039 illustratedin FIG. 13E, could include forming alignment marks on or within secondepitaxial layer 3032 (or second epitaxial processed layer 3033), and/orbase donor substrate 3010. These alignment marks could be visible at thelater time when remaining monocrystalline layer 3022 could be processed,for example, to form another stratum of transistors. Thustransistors/devices built on remaining monocrystalline layer 3022 andinterconnection on and through remaining monocrystalline layer 3022could be lithographically aligned to thosestructures/interconnect/transistors/devices built on second epitaxiallayer 3032 (or second epitaxial processed layer 3033). These structurescould be aligned to well below 40 nm to a precise alignment of a few nmor even less, being a ‘direct’ alignment that may be accomplished withshort wavelength optical means. The alignment marks on second epitaxiallayer 3032 could be visible to the lithographic tool used for processingpatterns on remaining monocrystalline layer 3022 as the layers secondepitaxial layer 3032, second porous layer 3024 and remainingmonocrystalline layer 3022 could be made thin enough for high resolutionalignment. When needed, additional steps could be made to support suchalignment, such as opening mark viewing regions/holes, etc. These mayinclude etching alignment marks deep enough through these layers so theycould be detected on the other side or opening a window in the remainingmonocrystalline layer 3022 and second porous layer 3024 to make themmore visible at the desired wavelength, and combination of these andother similar techniques known in the art.

As illustrated in FIG. 13F, dielectric layer 3042 may be formed on topof second epitaxial processed layer 3033 in preparation of transferringthe stratum donor structure 3050 onto a carrier wafer for the processingremaining monocrystalline layer 3022 (formed from first epitaxial layer3020). Dielectric layer 3042 may include deposited doped or undopedsilicon oxide and low k dielectric materials. In these drawings thecontact layers and the first metal layer are not shown while it could bemade in similar to contacts 2717 illustrated in respect to FIG. 10A. Thefollowing steps could be similar to those illustrated in respect to FIG.12A-12E. Stratum donor structure 3050 may include dielectric layer 3042,second epitaxial processed layer 3033, second porous layer 3024,remaining monocrystalline layer 3022, upper layer of porous silicon3014, lower layer of porous silicon 3012, base donor substrate 3010.

In some applications two layers of transistors, for example Stratum-2and Stratum-3, are sufficient and then the target wafer/base wafer, suchas at least 808 herein and in incorporated references, could be replacedwith simple carrier wafer. In such case it might be useful to process 2or more layers of interconnection for Stratum-2 as illustrated withrespect by Stratum-2 2988 of FIG. 12D before transferring to a carrierwafer or target wafer 808. The following illustrates these additionalsteps.

As illustrated in FIG. 13G, stratum donor structure 3050 may be bonded(for example, oxide-oxide wafer bonding) on top of a carrier wafer 3065.Carrier wafer 3065 may be preprocessed similar to what was presented inreference to FIG. 12A, and may include a side wall protection 3068.Carrier wafer 3065 may include porous layers 2802 and 2804, oxidebonding layer 2806, or oxide 2956 which may cover the carrier wafersidewalls, as described with respect to FIGS. 12A and 11A.

FIG. 13H illustrates the bonded structure after cutting off the donorwafer at porous layers upper layer of porous silicon 3014 and lowerlayer of porous silcon 3012, and then removing the residues of theporous layer in similar to what have been presented in reference to FIG.12B and FIG. 12C. Thus, carrier wafer 3065 is carrying the two isolatedcrystalline silicon strata structure 3051.

As illustrated in FIG. 13I, transistors may be processed and formed onthe top layer of carrier wafer 3065 with two isolated crystallinesilicon strata structure 3051, thus forming stratum-2 3064. Thus dualstrata structure 3052 may include stratum-2 3064, isolation layer 3063of oxidized porous silicon or other isolation material previously secondporous layer 3024), and the previously processed transistor/device layersecond epitaxial processed layer 3033—Stratum-3.

The new transistor process could be done using standard processing;however, the thermal budget needs to be considered as to its effect onthe earlier processed transistor layer of second epitaxial processedlayer 3033. This is similar to what was presented before. Additionalmeasures to reduce the thermal budget impact of the processing ofStratum-2 on the preprocessed Stratum-3 can be found in at least U.S.Pat. No. 9,023,688 titled NOVEL METHOD OF PROCESSING A SEMICONDUCTORDEVICE, of the incorporated references. The isolation layer 3063 couldbe designed to be thick enough and/or of proper material composition tohave extremely low thermal conductivity (for example, the TIL of U.S.Pat. No. 9,023,688). And if care is taken to construct the carrier wafer3065 with good thermal conduction from Stratum-3 to a heat removalapparatus (for example on the backside of carrier wafer 3065) during thehigh temperature processing steps of Stratum-2, then the heat impact onStratum-3 could be highly reduced, and especially so for short hightemperature Stratum-2 processing steps.

As illustrated in FIG. 13J, interconnection layers 3054 for Stratum-2may be processed/formed on carrier wafer 3065 with dual strata structure3052. Interconnection layer 3054 may include a single metal layer ormultiple metal and inter-metal isolation layers. For example,interconnection layer 3054 may include metal-1 layer 3051, metal-2 layer3053, vias, contacts, etc. Thus, partially interconnected dual stratastructure 3070 may be formed and may include interconnection layer 3054,dual strata structure 3052, and carrier wafer 3065.

As illustrated in FIG. 13K, partially interconnected dual stratastructure 3070 could then be flipped and bonded onto a target wafer 808(not shown) or onto a carrier substrate 809 (shown) which may include atop oxide layer 3072 for bonding.

As illustrated in FIG. 13L, carrier wafer 3065 may be cleaved/cut-offand cleaning of the porous residue similar to what presented inreference to FIG. 12D and FIG. 12E may be performed. Thus, dual stratastructure 3052 and interconnection layer 3054 remain and are stillattached to carrier substrate 809 (shown) or a target wafer 808 (notshown)

As illustrated in FIG. 13M, through layer vias (TLV) 3076 may be formedand stratum-3 and stratum 3 to TLV interconnect may be formed (notshown). TLVs 3076 are going through both silicon (preferred thru the STIof each stratum and oxidized isolation layer) that of Stratum-2 and thatof Stratum-3 to provide electrical and thermal connection between thesetwo strata.

FIG. 13N illustrates the structure of FIG. 13M after adding exemplarycontact 3082, metal-1 interconnection layer 3084 and metal-2interconnection layer 3086. The number of metal layers for each stratumwould be a design choice of each design similar to a 2DIC. The waferhaving the two strata with their strata interconnection 3056 over acarrier substrate 809 is now ready to have the pads for connection toexternal devices as is illustrated in FIG. 13O

FIG. 13O illustrates the structure after the addition of pads 3092 andassociated via connection 3091 to strata interconnection layer 3056 ordual strata structure 3052. In some applications it might be desired tohave addition connection to an external device from the bottom of the 3Dstrata device. In those cases it might be preferable to use a designedcarrier 810 with TSV 3093 connections already built into it. In thosecases a hybrid bonding could be used forming the connection 3095 to thecarrier wafer 810 with built in TSV 3093. The bottom pads 3094 could beadded to facilitate the bottom connection to external devices.

FIG. 14 is an illustration referring to prior art of Back Bias (BB) forUltra-Thin Body (UTBB) FD-SOI (Fully Depleted Silicon on Insulator). Itis a well-known technique to enhance the performance of FD-SOI byproviding a back bias. As illustrated, in some cases it is desired toprovide a negative voltage as back bias which could be referred asReverse Back Bias (RBB) and sometimes it is preferred to providepositive voltage which is referred as Forward Back Bias (FBB). Anembodiment of the invention can be such back bias capabilities added tothe structure illustrated in FIGS. 13A-13M.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,772,096, incorporated herein by reference, teaches theuse of multiple layers with alternating levels of porosity for theformation of high quality silicon over oxide. The following inventiveembodiments extend these concepts for the formation of multiple strataICs. FIG. 15A illustrates the substrate product 3030 (now numbered assubstrate product 3230) previously illustrated in FIG. 13D. A base donorsubstrate 3202 is processed to form first porous layer 3204 (which mayinclude two porous layers—shown) for a future cut or cleave. Asdescribed in respect to FIGS. 13A to 13D, a first epitaxial layer isformed of which portion is made porous, thus forming remaining firstepitaxial layer 3222 and second porous layer 3224. Then the follow-onprocessing may include forming a second epitaxial layer 3232. The secondepitaxial layer 3232 could be used to form a back bias region of thetype illustrated in FIG. 14. The back bias layout structure may beplanned according to the plan of the follow-on formed transistor layerwhich may be aligned to second epitaxial layer 3232 based on alignmentmark formed in similar way as discussed before.

As illustrated in FIG. 15B, substrate product 3230 may be processed toform third porous layer 3234 out of a portion of second epitaxial layer3232. Third porous layer 3234 may be constructed in similar manner ashave been discussed before in respect to second porous layer 3024.

As illustrated in FIG. 15C, substrate product 3230 may be processed toform third epitaxial layer 3236 on top of third porous layer 3234.

The third epitaxial layer 3236 could now be processed to formtransistors. As illustrated in FIG. 15D, third epitaxial processed layer3035 may include STI (Shallow Trench Isolation) 3237, N type transistors3238 and P type transistors 3239. This transistors layer third epitaxialprocessed layer 3035 could be now referred to as Stratum-3. Through STIconnection could be made to layer 3232 for the proper back bias contactlocations. As discussed before the high temperature processing stepcould be done at this phase. This processing could utilize aconventional transistor front line process and could include all thehigh temperature steps required including silicidation process, raisedsource/drains, strain, and contact formation to these transistors. Thetransistors formed could include many types of transistors, for example,such as fully depleted SOI and/or FinFET, or many other types of othertransistors at least as described herein and in the incorporatedreferences.

The subsequent processing of the structures of FIG. 15D could be done ina similar manner to those illustrated in FIG. 13E to FIG. 13M, thusforming at least a fully interconnected Stratum-2 and Stratum-3 on topof a carrier substrate such as carrier substrate 809.

The thicknesses of the layers first epitaxial layer 3222, second porouslayer 3224, second epitaxial layer 3232, third porous layer 3234, thirdepitaxial layer 3236 and third epitaxial processed layer 3235 could eachbe designed independently as desired and range from a few nanometer (nm)to tens of micrometers (μm); for example, about 5 nm, about 10 nm, about20 nm, about 100 nm, about 200 nm, about 500 nm, about 1 um, about 2 um,about 5 um, about 10 um, about 20 um, or about 50 um. In many cases thelayers third porous layer 3234 and third epitaxial layer 3236 could bemade relatively thin. Having the layer third porous layer 3234 thin toabout 20 nm could be effective for the back bias to affect N typetransistors 3238 and P type transistors 3239 at voltages in the range of−3 volt to +3 volt. Having the third epitaxial layer 3236 at about 10 nmor 20 nm could be a fit for ultra-thin body FD SOI.

Another alternative not illustrated here is to repeat the process toform an additional porous layer and one more crystalline layer, so thatthe one back bias layer could serve Stratum-2 transistors and devicesand different back bias layer to serve Stratum-3 transistors anddevices.

The formation of a back bias p-Well and n-Well in the second epitaxiallayer 3232 could be done by patterning and ion implant. It could beprocessed after formation of the third porous layer 3234 illustrated inFIG. 15B.

In another alternative second epitaxial layer 3232 could include ahigh-resistivity layer to support RF circuits in third epitaxialprocessed layer 3235 of the Stratum-3. A high-resistivity layer tosupport RF circuits may be effective if the true electrical resistivitysensed by a co-planar waveguide (CPW) line is higher than about 1kohm-cm, or higher than about 3 k-ohm-cm. This may result in a CPWattenuation versus frequency response that is substantially similar tothe response of a CPW on a quartz substrate. There are a variety of ionsthat could be implanted to increase second epitaxial layer 3232'sresistivity such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and others. The implantcould be annealed before the formation of transistors on third epitaxiallayer 3236 to simplify managing the thermal budget for Stratum-3transistors such as N type transistors 3238 and P type transistors 3239(also see previous discussions of integrated TRL).

As illustrated in FIG. 15B-1, additional layer 3267 could be formeddisposed between the high porosity for future isolation layer thirdporous layer 3234 and the high-resistivity substrate second epitaxiallayer 3232. Additional layer 3267 could include a trap-rich layer forfurther enhancement for an RF circuit planned for third epitaxial layer3236. Formation of additional layer 3267 may include a reduction of theanodizing current so that additional layer 3267 has low porosity and mayact similarly to a poly-silicon layer to support a trap-rich function.There are multiple techniques known in the art for the formation of traprich layer. For example, silicon-into-silicon implantation could be usedtogether with hydrogen implant and RF plasma to cause plateletnucleation. These techniques could be now applied to make additionallayer 3267 trap-rich. For simplicity, the following illustrations FIG.15C to FIG. 15D do not show layer 3267.

It some cases it could be desirable to form into discrete regions ofsecond epitaxial layer 3232 different zones such as back bias and/orhigh resistivity. These variations could be made by patterning andimplant followed by annealing as is well known in the art.

It should be noted that while silicon is by far the most common materialused in semiconductor devices and accordingly the presented flowsdetailed for silicon based processing could be implemented for othertypes of crystals or even allow a mixing of different crystals as isknown in the art in epitaxial processes. A list of other crystals andmaterials that could be used or mixed could be found, for example, inHandbook of Porous Silicon published by Springer InternationalPublishing Switzerland, 2014, incorporated herein by reference.

Additional 3D flows may be a modification of the flows presented before.FIG. 16A is illustrating the structure illustrated before as in FIG.13E. Donor wafer structure 3320 may include the two porous layersbuilt-in to support a future cut-off step. Remaining monocrystallinelayer 3322 may be the first epitaxial layer that could be used forStratum-2 transistors and devices. Second porous layer 3324 may be anisolation layer which could be porous silicon that gets oxidized. Secondepitaxial processed layer 3333 may include STI (Shallow TrenchIsolation) 3337, N type transistors 3334 and P type transistors 3336.Second porous layer 3324 could be replaced with multiple layers for backbias or other functions as presented before.

As illustrated in FIG. 16B, stratum-3 interconnection layers 3338 may beformed to provide interconnection for Stratum-3 and future potentialconnection to Stratum-2. Interconnection layers 3338 could includerefractory metals such as tungsten so that high temperature processingcould be allowed for the subsequent processing of Stratum-2. In someapplications, such as image sensors, there may be no need for stratum-3interconnection layers 3338. Thus Stratum-3 with interconnect on donorwafer structure 3350 may be formed.

As illustrated in FIG. 16C, stratum-3 with interconnect on donor waferstructure 3350 may be flipped and bonded on top of carrier substrate3365 (may be called carrier wafer). Shown in this embodiment of the flowcarrier substrate 3365 is the final carrier wafer.

As illustrated in FIG. 16D, the structure of FIG. 33C may be formedafter cutting off the donor layer structure 3320 and cleaning of theporous silicon residues.

As illustrated in FIG. 16E, stratum-2 layer 3322 may be formed/processedand may include N type transistors 3326 and P type transistors 3325, aswell as other types of devices, for example, resistors, capacitors, andso on.

As illustrated in FIG. 16F, Stratum-2 interconnection layers 3354 may beformed/processed. At this point all the high temperature processing stepshould have been completed and Stratum-2 interconnection layers 3354could comprise copper or aluminum. As layers, for example, remainingmonocrystalline layer 3322, second porous layer 3324, and Stratum-2layer 3322 are relatively thin as presented before, then thetransistors/devices/structures of Stratum-2 could be made directlylithographically aligned to the transistors/devices/structures ofStratum-3. Thus transistors/devices built on Stratum-2 layer 3322 andinterconnection on and through Stratum-2 layer 3322 could belithographically aligned to the transistors of Stratum-3. Thesestructures could be aligned to well below 40 nm to a precise alignmentof a few nm or even less, being a ‘direct’ alignment that may beaccomplished with short wavelength optical means. Accordingly thestructure 3370 of FIG. 16F illustrates a wafer of two circuit stratatightly aligned. The structure could be then finished with conventionalprocessing of adding I/O pads, testing, dicing and bonding to beprovided as integrated circuit device.

The stratum-3 interconnection 3338 of structure 3370 may be relativelyless effective due to the use of refractory metal, due, for example, bythe higher resistivity of tungsten than the resistivity of aluminum orcopper. Yet, for many functions that could be built on Stratum-3 thiswill be very acceptable. These applications may include: image sensor,device input output circuitry, SerDes (Serializer and Deserializerdevice to device interconnect circuitry), local interconnectionincluding support circuits for stratum-2 such as buffer and repeaters.

In many applications it is desired to thin the finished wafer prior todicing. A process called back grinding could be used to thin thefinished structure 3370; for example, about 700 μm thinned to about 200μm or to 50 μm.

The use of a final carrier provides an attractive alternative to theconventional technique. FIG. 17 illustrates such special final carrier3465. The structure 3470 is similar to the structure 3370 of FIG. 16F.The main difference is having on top of the porous layer designed forcut 3404 a relatively thick final substrate layer 3406. The finalsubstrate layer 3406 thickness could be in the range of 50 μm to 200 μmaccording to the packaging choice. Bonded on top of it is the isolatedtwo strata structure 3408 which could be formed as presented before. Nowinstead of back grinding, the porous layers could be used to cut off theisolated two strata structure 3408 bonded to the final substrate layer3406 from the bulk carrier 3402. The bulk carrier could be recycledfurther reducing this flow's cost compared to the back grindingalternative.

The final substrate layer 3406 could be formed by an epitaxial process,or by CVD or by other techniques of deposition or layer transfer, forexample, ion-cut, SOI, porous layer.

The final substrate layer 3406 could be designed to provide functionsother than mechanical support to the two strata structure 3408. Thefollowing are some of these optional functions:

A. When Stratum-3 layer 3332 is an image sensor then it could beadvantageous to have a very thin and optically transparent finalsubstrate layer 3406.

B. The final substrate layer 3406 could carry the pads for externalconnection and through layer 3406 vias to connect these pads to thedevice I/O (input/output) circuitry.

C. The final substrate layer 3406 could be made to have a very goodthermal connectivity to provide operational a heat removal path for thecircuits/devices on the two strata structure 3408.

These flows where the multiple strata structure such as two stratastructure 3408 could be transferred to a final carrier or finalsubstrate opens up additional flexibilities. There are strictrequirements for material thickness and heat tolerance for the carrierwafer to support conventional semiconductor processing of these devicelayers and their interconnections. In some situations it might beadvantageous that once done with these wafer processing steps the stratastructure would be transfer to a final carrier or final substrate thatis not design to support semiconductor processing but rather to supportdevice performance; for example, for heat removal, frequencystabilization, emf/emi shielding, or connectivity to external devices.An additional advantage of this approach is the ability to allow theprocessing of these functional final carrier or final substrate to beindependent from the processing of the semiconductor devices, thusallowing for far better flexibility, efficiency, costs and overallshorter processing or time-to-market.

FIG. 18A to FIG. 18C illustrates an embodiment of this innovation. FIG.18A is similar to FIG. 13M but instead of final carrier substrate 809,carrier 3565 is utilized. Carrier 3565 may include bulk carrierwafer/substrate 3502, porous cut structure 3504 and bonding layer 3506.Carrier 3565 could be about 700 μm thick and designed to withstandconventional semiconductor processing similar to previously describedcarrier. For example, carrier 3565 could be a conventionalmonocrystalline silicon wafer. Porous cut layer 3504 may include and besimilar to previously described cut porous layers. Porous cut layer 3504may include some protection to protect it from being cut prior to thetime it is desirable to or has been designed to be cut, for example,such as side wall protection 3068 or other methods as had been describedor designed by techniques known in the art. These protections could beremoved once it is the time to do the cut. Stratum structure 3556 couldbe a two layer Stratum-2 and Stratum-3 and may include an isolationlayer and additional layers in between such as back bias layers as wasdescribed before.

FIG. 18B illustrate the wafer structure 3570 after the addition ofinterconnect layers 3576. Interconnect layers 3576 may include manylayers to support the required connectivity and power delivery and otherrequired layers such as pads for connecting the device to externaldevices. These processes could be done in a conventional back of theline semiconductor processing line. Once the strata structure 3500 hascompleted all its semiconductor processing it could be then betransferred on top of a functional carrier that is independentlydesigned and processed and is not limited to comply with therequirements of semiconductor processing.

FIG. 18C illustrates the flipping and bonding of the wafer structure3570 onto a functional carrier 3585. Porous cut layer 3504 could then beused for the cut/cleave removing the bulk carrier wafer/substrate 3502and thus leaving the top bonding layer 3506 or a portion of bondinglayer 3506. Bonding layer 3506 may include a thin oxide layer or athicker silicon layer that could even provide some mechanical support tostrata structure 3500 to complement the mechanical support provided byfunctional carrier 3585. Strata structure 3500 may have a thickness lessthan 10 μm. It could include multiple layers of crystallized silicon,isolation and porous layers and many metal layers. Yet, most of theselayers are very thin, on the order of few rim to hundreds of nm.Accordingly strata structure 3500 could be too thin to manage on its ownand would not support by tens on micron support structure such asbonding layer 3506 and or functional carrier 3585.

The functional carrier 3585, being un-constrained by the need to supportconventional semiconductor processes, opens the opportunity to constructit so to support other functions, such as:

A. High spectral transparency for special image detectors.

B. Color or other filters, or micro-lenses.

C. Phase change material to support special heat management function

D. Special high thermal and/or electrical conductivity material such asgraphene, diamond layer, carbon nano-tubes structure etc.

E. Structures with build-in micro channels for liquid cooling.

F. Heat sink structures designed to support efficient air cooling.

G. Structures with pads and through layer vias to support connectivity.

H. Battery or high capacity capacitors (‘super capacitors’).

I. Flexible substrates

This flexibility of the functional carrier could be advantageous to themultiple strata presented or to any structure developed on a wafer usingsemiconductor processing including simpler devices with a single Stratumor a far more complex device using many stratums of circuits.

Strata structure 3500 could utilize Stratum-2 and Stratum-3 for variouselectronic circuits and other functions. In some applications one ofthose stratums could be used to carry logic functions while the othercould carry memory functions. In general, memory function may includearrays of bit cells with decoder circuits and other peripheral functionsalong the array sides. From a lithography point of view, manufacturinglayers that are made of repeating functions are clearly easier and lowercost to process. In memory the bit cells are a repeating function whilethe decoders and other peripheral function are not part of theserepeating structures. In U.S. Pat. No. 8,395,191, which is incorporatedherein by reference, in respect to at least FIG. 84, a solution ispresented to allow leveraging this repeating structure by allocating thebit cells to one of the strata and constructing the decoders and otherperipheral function on the other stratum. Such could be attractive toapply to a strata structure such as strata structure 3500. In general,as presented in respect to FIG. 84 of U.S. Pat. No. 8,395,191, theoutput of the decoders are the bit-lines—8462 of FIG. 84G—and the wordlines—8452 of FIG. 84F. These word lines and bit lines are high densitylines for each row and column of the bit-cell array and would form asubstantive connectivity blockage if they would be needed to be routedthrough an interconnect fabric. Accordingly, strata structure 3500allows a designer/layout engineer to avoid such blockage by having theinterconnect of Stratum-2 face down while the interconnects of Stratum-3are facing up. Thus, if, for example, Stratum-3 is used for the bit-cellarray and Stratum-2 is used for the logic and the decoders, then theconnection from the decoders of Stratum-2 to the bit cell array onStratum-3 could utilize the through strata connections TLVs 3076 sparingthe blockage to the routing fabric of Stratum-2.

FIG. 19A to FIG. 19C are illustrating this concept. FIG. 19A illustratesa similar structure to the one illustrated in FIG. 13M. A stratastructure may be bonded on top of a carrier substrate 809. The stratastructure may include stratum-2 3602 which may be used for the logic andthe decoders, through strata via 3676 to bring the decoded bit lines andword lines to stratum-3, and stratum-3 3603 carrying the bit cell 3606array. FIG. 19B illustrates Stratum 3 after re-processing to formisolation region 3608 within the bit cell 3606 array, and form access tothe memory control lines—bit lines and the word lines 3610. Processingmay include a lithographically defined etching step using lithographythat could be done at far larger resolution than that required for theformation of Stratum-3 devices. FIG. 19C illustrates the connection 3612made from the through strata via 3676 to the memory control line.

Another effective use of strata structure 3500 could be for programmablelogic fabrics. In U.S. Pat. No. 8,395,191 a programmable logic fabric ispresented such as in at least FIG. 8A with two stratum of programmingtransistors, one 814 that is named Foundation to program the logicfabric 804, and multiple layers above additional programming stratum 810named Attic for the programming of the routing fabric 807.

The unique form of strata structure 3500 could allow having theprogrammable logic built in stratum-2 to be programmed by programmingtransistors which may reside in stratum-3. Stratum-3 may also includethe routing programming transistors which would program the configurableinterconnect fabric built in the routing fabric of stratum-3.

In some applications it might be desired not even to construct astratum-2 but rather leverage a derivative of the presented flow toconstruct interconnection both underneath the transistor layer and ontop of it in order to further improve the overall transistorconnectivity.

In some applications there might be a preference to use an ion cuttechnique to form the monocrystalline layer on top of the porous layerrather than use the epitaxial process. Since the structure couldwithstand high temperature processes, such flow could provide a highquality thin monocrystalline layer on top of the porous layer afterperforming high temperature annealing to repair damages caused from theion cut process.

Many of the multiple strata porous based process flows may require thatthe structure comprising porous layers would withstand semiconductorprocessing temperatures and physical/mechanical stresses and that thecut step will affect only the target porous layer and not other porouslayers that might be included in the structure. The presented flows didattend to this issue and the following additional alternatives arepresented to provide additional alternatives for such. To simplify thedescription we may use the term ‘porous layer to be cut’ while actuallyreferring to a dual porous layer structure such as upper porous layer2642 together with lower porous layer 2644 or lower layer of poroussilicon 3012 together with upper layer of porous silicon 3014.

Another alternative process for forming the dual cut porous layers lowerlayer of porous silicon 3012 and upper layer of porous silicon 3014 hasbeen proposed in IBM patent application Ser. No. 10/685,636,incorporated herein by reference. In this alternative the two layerswould have two different doping levels formed by processes such as ionimplant and activation prior to the anodization step.

FIG. 20 is illustrating an exemplary wafer structure 3700 for theseprocesses. Wafer structure 3700 may include typical wafer diameters of150 mm to 300 mm and some expect to see 450 mm wafer in the future.Wafer structure 3700 may include a thickness of about 600 to about 800micrometer (μm), while the thickness of the porous layer 3706, epitaxiallayer 3704 and bonding oxide (not shown) may include, for example, arange of about 10 nm to about 40 82 m.

Accordingly in respect to the wafer diameter, these processed layers areextremely small. The following description of some of these alternativeswill use an illustration of a very small part of the wafer structure3700—indicated by the ‘bubble’ 3710.

FIG. 21A illustrates the use of lithographically patterning to formsurface protection ring 3808 on the outer ring of the wafer 3810.

FIG. 21B illustrates one alternative for the formation of porous layer3806. The protection ring 3808 needs to be at least three times widerthan the thickness of the porous layer 3806 so it will preserve theintegrity of the wafer side edge. In this way, after the step ofepitaxial growth of crystallized silicon, the porous layer 3806 would befully protected by crystallized silicon all around. If these porouslayer(s) are to be used later for cut, then the side wall protectioncould be removed to assist with targeting of such cut as is presentedlater. Accordingly the outer ring 3808 might not be useful for circuitfunction but in respect to the wafer diameter this loss isinsignificant.

FIG. 22A illustrates wafer 3910 with top porous layer 3908.

FIG. 22B illustrates the addition of an epitaxial layer 3909. Theepitaxial 3909 could be made to grow all around the wafer 3910 or on thetop and partially down the sides providing side wall protection to theporous layer 3908. Accordingly providing another porous protectionalternative.

Another alternative is illustrated by FIG. 23A and FIG. 23B.

FIG. 23A illustrates wafer 4010 with top porous layer 4002 and epitaxiallayer 4008. Then the structure may be covered by a protection material4006, such as polysilicon, silicon oxide or silicon nitride or othersemiconductor compatible material. This protection may be deposited in anon-directional method which may then cover both the top surface of thewafer and its sides.

FIG. 23B illustrates the structure after directional etching—etchback—of the top layer of protection material 4006. This will remove theprotection from the top surface of the epitaxial layer 4008 and willleave the side wall 4007 protection in place.

These methods could be used to protect a single porous layer or multipleof porous and epitaxial layers such as one illustrated in FIG. 15C—firstporous layer 3204 (which may include two porous layers—shown).

This protection could be strengthened if required by either a thickerside wall or the addition of strengthening posts in a non-functionalarea of the wafer surface such as the dicing streets. Since in some ofthe presented flows the porous layers are used to form isolation, suchas second porous layer 3024, between mono-crystalline layers, such asremaining monocrystalline layer 3022 and second epitaxial layer 3032,and are not planned to be cut but rather be part of the devicestructure, in these cases such extra mechanical strengthening might be auseful option.

In other cases or variations of these flows, a porous layer may bedesigned for providing a cut/cleave and such cut might be done while thestructure includes at least one additional porous layer that should beprotected from an accidental cut. Accordingly it would be desired toremove the side wall protection only from the porous layer to be cutwhile still keeping side wall protection for the other porous layer.

One way to achieve such is by constructing different materialcomposition of side wall protection to these different potential porouscut layers. The formation of side walls as presented before including inFIG. 21A to FIG. 23B could include protection materials and in some casesacrificial materials for lift-off to allow a selective removal of suchprotection to allow cut in other cases. These are well known techniquesin the art.

To illustrate such optional technique we refer to the flow illustratedin FIG. 13A to FIG. 13L. Following the formation of the structureillustrated in FIG. 13B including the porous cut layers lower layer ofporous silicon 3012 and upper layer of porous silicon 3014 and the firstepitaxial layer 3020 a side wall layer may be formed on the structuredesigned to be used later for a lift-off step. The top surface of firstepitaxial layer 3020 could be cleaned of any residue of this lift-offmaterial to allow the following steps of porous and epitaxial growth.Then the structure as illustrated in FIG. 13D could be covered with sidewall protection that would be designed to protect the isolation layersecond porous layer 3024. Then after the lift-off step could be used toremove this new protection from the side of the cut porous layers lowerlayer of porous silicon 3012 and upper layer of porous silicon 3014.This would allow proper cut to be performed as illustrated in FIG. 13Gto FIG. 13H. FIG. 13G also illustrates the pre-formation off side wallprotection 3068 as part of the formation of the carrier wafer 3065. Theside wall protection 3068 of the carrier wafer 3065 could be done withvery different material than the side wall made for the isolation layersecond porous layer 3024, and could be removed for the cut stepillustrated in FIG. 13K to FIG. 13L. Having these side walls fromdifferent material could allow the removal of side wall protection 3068without removing the protection of the isolation layer second porouslayer 3024. Alternatively a different thickness of side wall could beused with side wall protection 3068 being thinner so its removal willkeep side wall protection to isolation layer second porous layer 3024.

Many other variations of these steps of deposition and removals could beused to support proper implementation of these process flows.

Alternatively special equipment could be constructed to supportselective removal of the cut layers side wall protection. Such equipmentcould be integrated to support the following cut process so it wouldfunction as a complete selective side wall removal and porous cut. Suchequipment could use a focused laser beam. Laser beams are already beingused for scribing and dicing application and there is good industrialknowledge of focused laser cut techniques for semiconductor materialssuch as silicon, poly silicon, silicon oxide and silicon nitride andother materials useful for side wall protection.

Alternative technique to assist the porous cut is presented in IBM U.S.Pat. No. 6,774,010, incorporated herein by reference. The technique iscalled freeze-thaw technique in which a fluid, such as water, isintroduced into the pores and expanded by freezing A fluid which expandsin volume upon freezing (or solidifying) is then introduced into atepores of porous layer. The fluid may be introduced in liquid form (byimmersing the bonded assembly in the fluid) or in gaseous form (byexposing the bonded assembly to vapors of the fluid). A preferable fluidis liquid water (H₂O). The structure is then cooled to freeze (orsolidify) and expand the fluid in porous layer, thus fracturing theporous cut layers.

Additional alternative to help directing the cut to the desired porouslayer while avoiding the cut off porous layer that either are not to becut at all or to be cut at later step of the process is to adjust theselayer thickness. The porous formation process is very flexible andallows an order of magnitude difference in thickness. For example, thelayers that are not to be cut could be processed to have thickness inthe range of 10-400 nm, the layer that should be cut first could beprocessed to have a thickness in the range of 6-20 μm, and the layer tobe cut afterward could be processed to have a thickness in the range of1-4 μm.

Additional alternatives for the formation of structures like the oneillustrated in FIG. 15C could leverage the good control of the level ofporosity in different depths of the wafer and save some of the epitaxialsteps presented in respect to the formation of the structure of FIG.15C.

FIG. 24A illustrates a structure similar to the one illustrated in FIG.13B. A base donor substrate 4110 is used to form a dual porous layer forfuture cut 4113 on which an epitaxial process is used to form relativelythick crystalline layer 4120. The epitaxial formation of relativelythick crystalline layer could include successively altering the additionof dopants to further support the following steps. It is well known thatthe dopant type and amount of crystalline silicon has a high impact onthe rate of porous formation process. Use of alternating dopant and/oranodizing current could be effective in formation of the multi-layerstructure illustrated in FIG. 24B. As relatively thick crystalline layer4120 is formed by epitaxial process alternating dopant during theprocess could be an effective approach for the following phase offorming alternating porosity layer structure as in FIG. 24B. Alternatingbetween P− and P+ could allow easier porous formation. Alternatingbetween N− and N+ could also be used. For N type silicon the anodizingprocess might need some additional hole generating support such as backside illumination.

Another alternative to construct multilayer porous structure alternatingthe level of porosity is by altering the level of illuminationespecially for N type silicon.

And is some applications those techniques to form different level ofporosity could even be combined to achieve even higher porosityvariation or for other reasons. It should be obvious to people in theart that while one method is been suggested in respect to formation of amultilayer structure other method or mixing between these techniquescould be preferable in some cases. There many possible variation forthese process flows.

FIG. 24B illustrates relatively thick crystalline layer 4120 after goingthrough a porous formation process which successively alternates theanodizing current to form multilayer structure 4122. First using arelatively lower anodizing current low porosity layer 4132 is formedhaving less than about 40% porosity. Layer 4132 will be used later forthe epitaxial step for stratum-3. Then a higher current would be used toform layer 4134 underneath with porosity of over 60%. Layer 4134 couldutilized as an isolation layer. Then layer 4136 of lower than 40%porosity is formed underneath. Layer 4136 could be used for back-biasfor stratum-3, or an alternative substrate function such as presentedearlier. Then a higher current would be used to form layer 4138underneath with a porosity of over 60%. Layer 4138 could be utilized asan isolation layer. Then layer 4140 of lower than 40% porosity is formedunderneath. Layer 4140 could be used for back-bias for stratum-2, orelectromagnetic shielding or alternative substrate functions such aspresented earlier. Then a higher current would be used to form layer4142 underneath with a porosity of over 60%. Layer 4142 could beutilized as an isolation layer. Layer 4144 could be the portion of layer4120 that is left unmodified to be used for stratum-2. In some cases itmay be desired to construct a high resistivity layer to support RF(Radio Frequency) circuits on stratum-3. It might be preferable to deferthe high resistivity formation to be done after the completion of theanodizing porous formation process, as the anodizing current might benegatively impacted by the high resistivity. For example, after thecompletion of the anodizing process, an implant step for the formationof the resistivity of layer 4136 could be done prior to epitaxial stepof layer 4180. In addition to modifying layer 4136 so it will have highresistivity, an additional process could be used to form on top of it atrap rich layer. The trap rich layer could also be formed prior to theformation of the epitaxial layer 4180. There are multiple techniquesknown in the art for the formation of trap rich layer. For examplesilicon-into-silicon implantation could be used together with hydrogenimplant and RF plasma to cause platelet nucleation. For the formation ofsuch trap-rich layer it might be advantageous to form a layer in-betweenlayer 4134 and layer 4136 in a similar way to layer 3233 of FIG. 15B-1.

Alternatively a top layer of high resistivity may be formed by implantor any other method presented herein before or known in the art to befollowed by forming oxide layer on top and then transferring anadditional layer on top using an ion-cut technique or other layertransfer method. Combining some of the porous base structures with anion-cut based layer transfer could be applied to any of the presentedstructures as an alternative way to construct stratum-2 or stratum-3.

Alternatively, the alternating layers could have alternating porositiesof other levels such as layers 4132, 4136, 4140 with porosity of lessthan 30% while layers 4134, 4138, 4142 with porosity over 50%, or layers4132, 4136, 4140 with a porosity of less than 55% while layers 4134,4138, 4142 with porosity over 65%, or other alternating level ofporosity based on the target application and process choices.

FIG. 24C illustrates the structure 4122 after a step of epitaxial growthforming crystalline layer 4180 which may be used for stratum-3 similarto what has been presented herein before.

The high temperature step used for the epitaxy of layer 4140 or anadditional annealing step or the use of laser assisted annealing stepwould further reduce the porosity of the low porosity layers 4132, 4136,4140. The laser could be made to focus on individual layers to furtherenhance the multilayer structure.

The structure 4124 could further processed to further improve theisolation of the isolation layer 4136, 4138 and 4142. Such could be doneby etching holes in the structure for future lateral isolation orthrough structure vias and then further oxidized or etch the isolationlayers. The large difference in porosity could enable control theisolation without losing the functionally of the layers 4132, 4136,4140. Such holes could also be used to further enhance the layerfunctionality by heating and use of the proper gas materials.

Similar formation of such a multilayer structure could also be used for3D memories in line of what was presented in U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2017/0229174. For memory applications it could bedesired to open a side etch window which could be part of the processfor side gate formation, and then etch some of the porous layers andfollow with epitaxial step for further improving the 3D memory futuretransistor channels.

These flows include first forming a multilayer structure and thenprocessing the multilayer structure to construct multilayer IC(Integrated Circuit) devices. The multilayer structure could be formedby a vendor who is in the business of providing semiconductor substratesand/or raw wafers, while the processing of the various strata could bedone by a fab (fabrication facility) which specializes in semiconductorintegrated circuit manufacturing.

It could be preferred not to form the upper epitaxial layer 4180, butrather to leave it to the fab. At the fab instead of forming a genericepitaxial layer 4180, a pattern could be used to perform the epitaxialonly in locations targeting transistors or other specific devices. Thiscould be attractive, especially for fin-type transistors, since theconventional FinFET process includes an epitaxial step. An additionalbenefit could the fact that an epitaxial formation of the fin maynaturally form a defect free fin, as defects prorogate at 45 degreessuch that above the height of the fin width substantially all of thedefects have already propagated to the wall, thereby leaving the upperpart defect free. Such could help further reduce the cost of themultilayer structure.

In U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610 as related to at least FIG. 8A, amulti-strata FPGA device is illustrated. It has a first stratum called‘Foundation’ 814 which may carry the programming transistors for thelogic function 804 of the FPGA called ‘house’ and high above the‘Attic’—the programming transistors for the interconnect 810. Avariation of such multi strata FPGA 4200 is illustrated in FIG. 25. Thefoundation logic programming 4230 could be stratum-3 such as has beendescribed before such as stratum-3 2996 of FIG. 12E. The House 4220could be stratum-2 such as has been described before such as stratum-22998, and the Attic 4210 could be stratum-1 such as has been describedbefore such as target wafer 2995. There are multiple programmingtechnologies which may be used for FPGA. SRAM and look up table are themost popular. Stratum-3 could cany the SRAM for the look-up tables andfor the other logic function and stratum-1 could carry the programmingtransistors for antifuses that could be used for the programming of therouting as was described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610. Many othervariations are possible as well.

The transistors required for antifuse programming are relatively largeand would not require the most leading edge process and stratum-1 coulduse some of the other techniques for 3D device such as the one describedas RCAT, Junction-less devices.

Stratum-3 could also cany all the functions associated with thebit-stream interface for loading in the logic function, while stratum-1could also carry all the functions associated with the bit-streaminterface for loading in the routing function.

An attractive advantage of a multi-strata FPGA is the ability to reducecost in volume production with minimal change to the functional device4220—the House. Thus, stratum 3 could be removed by having planned inthe House, so each SRAM programming signal coming from stratum-1 couldhave a pre-built replacement option such as a custom via connecting itto ‘high’ (Vdd) or to ‘low’ (Vss) instead. By having a custom layer suchas a Via-1 layer, the function of stratum-3 could be replaced for highvolume production giving up the field programmability or at least someof it.

In a similar way, stratum-1 could be replaced by replacing the antifuseswith a custom via layer such as a via-6 layer.

In such case both the field programmable device and the volume devicecould be very much the same in respect to the House stratum-2 4220portion but the volume device would be at a far lower cost to produce asit would not have either a stratum-1 and/or a stratum-3. So the fieldprogrammable device would have more than 8 layers that are just as thevolume device but would not have the same amount of active transistorslayers by not having stratum-1 and/or Stratum-3, their associatedtransistor and interconnect layers.

While this approach keeps the user function 4220 almost the same for theprogrammable version and the volume lower cost version, there might besome minor differences either since the on resistance of a via is lessthan the antifuse, and/or since the drive of via is better than that ofan SRAM cell output. Those differences could be modeled and appropriatelibrary and routing models could be provided so a designer can use hisdesign tool (EDA) to validate correctness of the design for bothimplementations.

A paper presented at IEDM 2014 (paper #8.2) by D. S. Gardner at al.,“Integrated On-Chip Energy Storage Using Porous-Silicon ElectrochemicalCapacitors,” incorporated herein by reference, the authors teach the useof porous silicon for the formation of high capacity capacitors.Quoting: “In this work, electrochemical (EC) capacitors based onporous-silicon (P-Si) nanostructures with channel sizes 20 nm to 100 nmwere synthesized and coated with atomic layer deposited (ALD) films orchemical vapor deposited (CVD) carbon.“ . . . ” The pores can be formedin localized regions on the front side of a Si die or utilizing thebackside bulk Si of integrated circuits”. This type of capacitor couldbe integrated to one or more of the porous layer presented herein. Suchcould be integrated in the functional carrier 3585 to provide analternative to the trench capacitor presented before in respect to FIG.8 or to one of the porous layer presented in respect stratum-2 orstratum-3 such as layers second porous layer 3224 or third porous layer3234. These capacitors could be used to help stabilize the supply linessuch as Vdd and Vss, or to be part of supply voltage generation circuitsuch as charge pump, or even help store energy as part of on-chip energyharvesting circuits and networks.

Another use of capacitors constmcted utilizing such porous layers couldbe for capacitor based DRAM. This could be an alternative to trenchcapacitors by forming it under the DRAM select transistor or as analternative to place the capacitor utilizing porous layer(s) overlayingthe DRAM select transistor. Or as a side capacitor by forming the porousarea in a selected area assisted by lithography and structure andmodified flow of those presented in U.S. Pat. No. 8,687,399,incorporated herein by reference. Such as presented in respect to FIG.6A-J and FIG. 19.

In U.S. Pat. Nos 7,951,691 and 8,466,037, incorporated herein byreference, an alternative technique for porous layer cut is presented.FIG. 26 is the first figure of the prior art. In one embodiment of theprior art a wafer structure 10 having top surface 12 bottom surface 14.The prior art suggests to use mask step to form porous layer 16 only inthe target die area and keeping the dicing streets 24 non porous. Havinga porous on top of the porous layer an epitaxial layer is formed similarto what had been presented herein. On the epitaxial layer a circuitstructure 20 is to be processed using semiconductor processing steps.When the circuits have been fully processed, a unique singulation is tobe used. Instead of dicing along the dicing streets, an etch step to theporous layer could be used. This will allow pulling out a single die 26out of the wafer dice at a time.

This type of ‘cut per die’ could be implemented for many of thestructures presented herein. As etch to the porous layer would makeallow it to free the die. This could be also be assisted by etching theunderlying porous through the opening made in the ‘streets’—dicinglanes. The porous layer could be etched at a rate of over 10,000× fasterthan the solid silicon—provide very good etch selectivity. Anon-directional etch step could be used after the dicing lanes have beenetched to the porous layer to further assist the release of eachindividual die. For example instead of flipping over and bonding thestructure 3350 on top of a carrier wafer 3365 as was described before,the dicing lanes could be etched all the way to the porous layers 3304of FIG. 16B. And then each die off the structure could be released onits own and then follow the desired process which could include:

A. Clean the porous residues underneath layer 3322.

B. Coat with protective coating.

C. Packaged as a final product or assembled into other structure.

Such could be attractive for many products including the described imagesensor. The Carrier wafer could further be cleaned for reuse. A keyaspect of this flow is that while a full wafer structure would be toothin to be handled without being bonded to some type of carrier,individual die could be small enough to be handled even if it is onlyfew microns thick.

In general the semiconductor processes are done at wafer level to keepthe cost down and only at the end the wafer is being diced and theindividual dies are packaged to be integrated into the electronicsystem. Yet, the multi strata device could be a complex system whereintegrating individual dies could provide some important advantages suchas:

A. Each die could be tested and then only the good dies would be pickedto be integrated to the multi strata system.

B. The individual die could be smaller than the underlying dies it isbeing integrated into. If a whole wafer needs to be bonded for theintegration then a part of that wafer might be wasted as the die size isdefined by the underlying die and not by the required function area ofthe specific stratum.

C. The wafer from which a die is being picked might have different sizethan the wafer structure it is being integrated to.

Today there multiple wafer sizes used by the industry ranging from 50 mmto 300 mm (2″ to 12″) with 450 mm being considered for the future. Inaddition, some materials such as non-silicon wafers (GaAs, GaN) are notavailable at the larger wafer size. The ability to pick and integrateindividual dies into a multi strata wafer structure could extend theheterogeneous integration of 3DIC way beyond what would be available ifonly wafer level integration is used.

While the above description is about individual dies, an alternativeapproach could be some group of dies. Especially when the objective isto bond them into a multi-strata 3D wafer structure. By grouping dice,some cost saving could be achieved for the process of pick and place dieto wafer. And some benefit would be achieved in respect to potentiallithography steps that might take place for further interconnect andfollow-up processing. Such groups of dice could be 4 dies at a time orreticle (as used in stepper base lithography) at a time. Each‘semiconductor unit’ whether a die or group of dies that is designed tobe individually picked and bonded could have its own alignment marks tosupport precise placement and bonding and precise alignment ofsuccessive lithography steps or other processes to it. This successivelithography step could be conventional mask based or may include directwrite e-beam which provides a better per die flexibility. The use of ane-beam could be effective as the per die connection between strata couldbe constructed to be limited type of pattern such as via, horizontalfixed size strips and/or vertical fix size strips. Such a limited set ofpattern could be made as a fixed pattern of the e-beam machine therebyreducing the number of shots using a shaped beam and thus increasethroughput and reduce costs.

Also dies from different wafers could be bonded into one layer of themulti strata structure similar to the illustration of FIG. 12E of U.S.Pat No. 8,273,610.

Die to wafer picking and bonding equipment do exist today. In most casesthey are designed to handle die that are being cut from a regular waferof about 700 micron thick or from wafer that has thinned down to about50 micron. For the multi strata application described herein the die towafer bonder should be designed to handle die that is thinned to about amicron or even less. Such thin die is more flexible and the equipmentshould be designed accordingly. The thin die would be easier to align tothe target wafer as it thin enough for the alignment marks of the targetwafer to be detected through it. Keeping good temperature control andmatching the temperature of the ‘semiconductor unit’ and the targetwafer could allow very precise placing and bonding to the level of lessthan one micron or even less than 0.1 micron.

For avoiding use of bad dies, testing of the dies could be done prior tothe pick and bond phase. It could be preferred to do such wafer probingwithout physically contacting the die under test as presented in respectto FIG. 86C of U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610, and FIG. 24C of U.S. Pat. No.8,669,778. The concept of high efficiency contactless wafer probing isalso presented in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/465,142, Ser. No.14/006,020 incorporated herein by reference and other similardisclosures know in the art. In general, test signals are exchanged withthe wafer under test using a probe card or a probing wafer, wherein awireless contact may be achieved by utilizing capacitive coupling,inductive coupling or even electro-optical coupling. To power the waferunder test, a contact could be made with special power pads integratedwithin each die or in the other area of the wafer, for example, such asthe dicing streets, to provide power to a device under test. Inaddition, contactless powering could be used as was described earlierherein utilizing energy coupling and harvesting such as capacitivecoupling, inductive coupling or even electro-optical coupling. In thisalternative the picked die could resemble the structure of FIG. 16D.

FIG. 27A illustrates picking dies 4412 from a smaller size wafer 4410and placing them onto a larger wafer 4420 onto a larger die 4422 at adesignated location 4432. The picked die could be a structure formedwith stratum-2, stratum-3 and their interconnections as illustrated inFIG. 18B. The porous residues could be cleaned for each die after it waspicked up. Alternatively the machine could flip the die and bond it facedown to the target wafer and the cleaning could be done after all diesbeen placed for the fully populated target wafer. The designatedlocation could be formed by a lithography base step of the target waferas a preparation step. The bonding of the dies to the target wafer couldbe oxide to oxide to be followed up by steps to form the properinterconnects. Alternatively the bonding could be metal to metal orhybrid bonding forming the connection together with the bonding steps.Face to face bonding is well known in the art and by preparing thetarget wafer and to bonded structure the proper bonding pads couldfacilitate die to target wafer interconnects. The target wafer couldalready comprise multi strata as part of even more complex 3DICfabrication. Following the full population of the target wafer an oxideor other layer such as high density polymers could be deposited on it toseal the structure and then it could be prepared for further 3Dintegration by planarization and connection layer processing includingforming layers of redistribution of these connection for the next diesor wafer.

Another alternative is to have the detached die relatively thicker toassist with its improved mechanical strength. Then after placing andbonding, subsequently thin these dies to assist with verticalconnectivity. Such post-bonding thinning could leverage a porous layerin a similar way to what has been presented before herein.

FIG. 27B illustrates picking a 4 dies semiconductor unit 4442 from awafer 4440 to be placed onto a larger 4 die target 4452 of a targetwafer 4450 into a designated location 4462. The illustration of FIG. 27Bsuggests how to accommodate transferring 4 smaller dies 4442 onto largerdies 4452. Rotating dies by 90° degrees might not be allowed in someadvanced nodes due to lithography limitation which would limit thisapproach to just two dies. This approach would require additionalcomplexity in testing and packaging that might reduce the gains to makeit less practical. In general if the dies and the target wafer dies aredesigned to have the same size then picking multiple dies at time wouldfar easier to implement. Semiconductor unit to be a reticle size couldbe a good choice.

Another alternative is to pick dies and place them into a carrier waferand then move the carrier wafer onto the target wafer as is illustratedin FIG. 28A to FIG. 28C. FIG. 28A illustrates a carrier waferconstructed in a similar way to the wafer structure illustrated in FIG.30B. The bulk wafer 4510 may be processed to form a cut layer includingtwo porous layers lower 4512 and upper 4514 designed for a future cut.Layer 4520 could be epitaxial silicon or a deposited layer of oxide,poly silicon or other material or combination of more the one material.FIG. 28B illustrates the carrier wafer structure after an optionalformation of cavities 4522 for future die placement. The cavities couldbe formed by lithography and etch steps. Care should be taken so thecavity depth is well controlled. This could be assisted by prior properoxidation of layer 4514. Alternatively the upper layer 4520 could startas a thin layer which will be patterned for future cavities by oxide orother non-silicon layer, and then the epitaxial step could be done forall areas not covered by the patterned oxide forming the walls of thecavities. And another alternative is to not form cavities at all. It isadvantageous to pattern alignment marks to assist precise placement andbonding of the dies or the group of dies. FIG. 28C illustrates thecarrier wafer after being populated with dies 4532. The populatedcarrier wafer 4540 could now be processed to form interconnectdistribution layers and flipped over to be bonded and potentiallyconnected to a target wafer structure.

The bonding could be oxide to oxide which would be followed by viaformation through the multi-layer die structure followed byinterconnection layers formation or metal to metal or hybrid bonding.There are many techniques for the formation of this multi-strata 3DICwafer. Some of those techniques have been presented in U.S. Pat. No.8,273,610 as related to at least these figures: FIG. 30 to FIG. 33, FIG.73 to FIG. 80, FIG. 93 to FIG. 94, and FIG. 155.

The 3DIC system processing and the ability to mix strata of wafer leveland populated die level open multiple alternatives to manage one of thecritical challenges in semiconductor manufacturing—yield. This couldinvolve any or all of the following options:

A. Test the target wafer and only bond dies to yielded target die.

B. Use repair and redundancy only for target dies that tested to havedefects.

C. Use smaller than full die repair for target die with defects only insmall sections.

D. Use pass-through dies for target dies or their sections that do notneed repair. The pass-through dies could assist the integration ofadditional strata.

Methods for 3D enabled repair have been presented in U.S. Pat. No.8,273,610 in respect to at least FIG. 41, FIG. 86A-D, FIG. 87, FIG. 114,FIG. 119-126, FIG. 184-188. And also in U.S. Pat. No. 8,669,778,incorporated herein by reference, in respect to at least FIG. 17, FIG.24, FIG. 26, FIG. 27 and FIG. 31-38. This patent also presentscontactless probing and testing with respect to at least FIG. 24C andFIG. 29-30. U.S. application Ser. No. 13/796,930, issued as a U.S. Pat.No. 8,994,404, and incorporated herein by reference, in respect to atleast FIG. 26 and FIG. 31 teach the die to wafer repair option. The dieto wafer scheme enables a repair alternative. For example, instead ofusing direct write eBeam as has been suggested in respect to FIG. 86A,multiple repair dies could be available for the repair of each layer(Layer 1, Layer 2, . . . Layer n) in the 3D device. Based on the defectsfound for a specific 3D die the correct repair die could be selected.Having the fine grain flexibility to bond different die or die portionsto each location on the wafer could allow the use of a repair die bankinstead of using direct write eBeam.

The teaching herein in respect to die or semiconductor unit isapplicable just as well to any portion of a die or reticle definedpattern. These portions could be defined by having potential dice linesor defined by etch dice lines or isolation lines as presented in thepatent incorporated by reference such as: U.S. Pat. No. 8,669,778, in atleast FIG. 9-16 and FIG. 22-23; U.S. Pat. No. 8,687,399, incorporatedherein by reference, in at least FIG. 29-30; U.S. Pat. No. 8,536,023,incorporated herein by reference; in at least FIG. 27A-F; and U.S. Pat.No. 8,273,610; in respect to at least FIG. 9-12, FIG. 84 A-G, FIG.183A-C and FIG. 211-215. These techniques could be effective to anyrepeating circuits such as Gate-Array, FPGA, Memories, Image Sensor andmulti core. The repeating structure could be built in high volume, andspecific application could be cut off it the desired size allowing goodfit to the application resulting in reduced development and NRE cost andbenefiting from volume production of generic product. This allows whatcould be called ‘Lego’ construction of a specific product by leveragingpieces of standard products.

Similar concepts could be also called platform based design where thereare base strata on which additional strata or die could be added to formcustom 3DIC systems from some building blocks that could serve otherapplication as well, such as presented in respect to at least FIG. 2herein or FIG. 52 of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/796,930, and in U.S.Pat. No. 8,687,399 at least FIG. 16-17, FIG. 21A-C and FIG. 29-30. Theconnection between these strata could leverage on-device computer bus orNetwork on Chip (NOC) for convenient modularity. Establishing standardsand other system methodologies could be useful for these type of 3Ddevices.

Manufacturing wafers with advanced lithography and multiple metal layersis expensive Manufacturing three-dimensional devices, includingmonolithic 3D devices, where multiple advanced lithography layers orstrata each with multiple metal layers are stacked on top of each otheris even more expensive. The vertical stacking process offers new degreeof freedom that can be leveraged with appropriate Computer Aided Design(“CAD”) tools to lower the manufacturing cost.

Most designs are made of blocks, but the characteristics of these blockis frequently not uniform. Consequently, certain blocks may requirefewer routing resources, while other blocks may require very denserouting resources. In two dimensional devices the block with the highestrouting density demands dictates the number of metal layers for thewhole device, even if some device regions may not need them. Threedimensional devices offer a new possibility of partitioning designs intomultiple layers or strata based on the routing demands of the blocksassigned to each layer or strata.

Another variation on this invention is to partition designs into blocksthat require a particular advanced process technology for reasons ofdensity or speed, and blocks that have less demanding requirements forreasons of speed, area, voltage, power, or other technology parameters.Such partitioning may be carried into two or more partitions andconsequently different process technologies or nodes may be used ondifferent vertical layers or strata to provide optimized fit to thedesign's logic and cost demands. This is particularly important inmobile, mass-produced devices, where both cost and optimized powerconsumption are of paramount importance.

Synthesis CAD tools currently used in the industry for two-dimensionaldevices include a single target library. For three-dimensional designsthese synthesis tools or design automation tools may need to be enhancedto support two or more target libraries to be able to support synthesisfor disparate technology characteristics of vertical layers or strata.Such disparate layers or strata will allow better cost or poweroptimization of three-dimensional designs.

FIG. 29 is a flowchart illustration for an algorithm partitioning adesign into two target technologies, each to be placed on a separatelayer or strata, when the synthesis tool or design automation tool doesnot support multiple target technologies. One technology, APL (AdvancedProcess Library), may be faster than the other, RPL (Relaxed ProcessLibrary), with concomitant higher power, higher manufacturing cost, orother differentiating design attributes. The two target technologies maybe two different process nodes, wherein one process node, such as theAPL, may be more advanced in technology than the other process node,such as the RPL. The RPL process node may employ much lower costlithography tools and have lower manufacturing costs than the APL.

The partitioning starts with synthesis into APL with a targetperformance. Once complete, timing analysis may be done on the designand paths may be sorted by timing slack. The total estimated chip areaA(t) may be computed and reasonable margins may be added as usual inanticipation of routing congestion and buffer insertion. The number ofvertical layers S may be selected and the overall footprint A(t)/S maybe computed.

In the first phase components belonging to paths estimated to requireAPL, based on timing slack below selected threshold Th, may be set aside(tagged APL). The area of these component may be computed to be A(apl).If A(apl) represents a fraction of total area A(t) greater than (S−1)/Sthen the process terminates and no partitioning into APL and RPL ispossible—the whole design needs to be in the APL.

If the fraction of the design that requires APL is smaller than (S−1)/Sthen it is possible to have at least one layer of RPL. The partitioningprocess now starts from the largest slack path and towards lower slackpaths. It tentatively tags all components of those paths that are nottagged APL with RPL, while accumulating the area of the markedcomponents as A(rpl). When A(rpl) exceeds the area of a complete layer,A(t)/S, the components tentatively marked RPL may be permanently taggedRPL and the process continues after resetting A(rpl) to zero. If allpaths are revisited and the components tentatively tagged RPL do notmake for an area of a complete layer or strata, their tagging may bereversed back to APL and the process is terminated. The reason is thatwe want to err on the side of caution and a layer or stratum should bean APL layer if it contains a mix of APL and RPL components.

The process as described assumes the availability of equivalentcomponents in both APL and RPL technology. Ordinary persons skilled inthe art will recognize that variations on this process can be done toaccommodate non-equivalent technology libraries through remapping of theRPL-tagged components in a subsequent synthesis pass to an RPL targetlibrary, while marking all the APL-tagged components as untouchable.Similarly, different area requirements between APL and RPL can beaccommodated through scaling and de-rating factors at the decisionmaking points of the flow. Moreover, the term layer, when used in thecontext of layers of mono-crystalline silicon and associatedtransistors, interconnect, and other associated device structures in a3D device, such as, for example, uncommitted repair layer 2432 (found inFIG. 24 of parents U.S. Ser. No. 15/477,106 and U.S. Ser. No.14/642,724), may also be referred to as stratum or strata.

The partitioning process described above can be re-applied to theresulting partitions to produce multi-way partitioning and furtheroptimize the design to minimize cost and power while meeting performanceobjectives.

The challenge of aligning preformed or partially preformed planartransistors to the underlying layers and substrates may be overcome bythe use of repeating structures on the donor wafer or substrate and theuse of metal connect landing strips either on the acceptor wafer only oron both the donor and acceptor wafers. The metal connect landing stripsmay be formed with metals, such as, for example, copper or aluminum, andmay include barrier metals, such as, for example, TiN or WCo. Repeatingpatterns in one direction, for example, North to South repeats ofpreformed structures may be accomplished with the alignment scheme andmetal landing strips as described previously with reference to the FIG.33 of incorporated reference U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610. The gate last HKMGprocess may be utilized to create a pre-processed donor wafer thatbuilds not just one transistor type but both types by utilizingalternating parallel strips or rows that may be the die width plusmaximum donor wafer to acceptor wafer misalignment in length.

Some embodiments of the invention may include alternative techniques tobuild IC (Integrated Circuit) devices including techniques and methodsto construct 3DIC systems. Some embodiments of the invention may enabledevice solutions with far less power consumption than prior art. Thedevice solutions could be very useful for the growing application ofmobile electronic devices and mobile systems such as, for example,mobile phones, smart phone, and cameras, those mobile systems may alsoconnect to the internet. For example, incorporating the 3DICsemiconductor devices according to some embodiments of the inventionwithin the mobile electronic devices and mobile systems could providesuperior mobile units that could operate much more efficiently and for amuch longer time than with prior art technology.

Smart mobile systems may be greatly enhanced by complex electronics at alimited power budget. The 3D technology described in the multipleembodiments of the invention would allow the construction of low powerhigh complexity mobile electronic systems. For example, it would bepossible to integrate into a small form function a complex logic circuitwith high density high speed memory utilizing some of the 3D DRAMembodiments of the invention and add some non-volatile 3D NAND chargetrap or RRAM described in some embodiments of the invention. Mobilesystem applications of the 3DIC technology described herein may be foundat least in FIG. 156 of U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610, the contents of whichare incorporated by reference.

Furthermore, some embodiments of the invention may include alternativetechniques to build systems based on integrated 3D devices includingtechniques and methods to construct 3DIC based systems that communicatewith other 3DIC based systems. Some embodiments of the invention mayenable system solutions with far less power consumption andintercommunication abilities at lower power than prior art. Thesesystems may be called ‘Internet of Things”, or IoT, systems, wherein thesystem enabler is a 3DIC device which may provide at least threefunctions: a sensing capability, a digital and signal processingcapability, and communication capability. For example, the sensingcapability may include a region or regions, layer or layers within the3DIC device which may include, for example, a MEMS accelerometer (singleor multi-axis), gas sensor, electric or magnetic field sensor,microphone or sound sensing (air pressure changes), image sensor of oneor many wavelengths (for example, as disclosed in at least U.S. Pat.Nos. 8,283,215 and 8,163,581, incorporated herein by reference),chemical sensing, gyroscopes, resonant structures, cantileverstructures, ultrasonic transducers (capacitive & piezoelectric). Digitaland signal processing capability may include a region or regions, layeror layers within the 3DIC device which may include, for example, amicroprocessor, digital signal processor, micro-controller, FPGA, andother digital land/or analog logic circuits, devices, and subsystems.Communication capability, such as communication from at least one 3DICof IoT system to another, or to a host controller/nexus node, mayinclude a region or regions, layer or layers within the 3D IC devicewhich may include, for example, an RF circuit and antenna or antennasfor wireless communication which might utilize standard wirelesscommunication protocols such as G4, WiFi or Bluetooth, I/O buffers andeither mechanical bond pads/wires and/or optical devices/transistors foroptical communication, transmitters, receivers, codecs, DACs, digital oranalog filters, modulators.

Energy harvesting, device cooling and other capabilities may also beincluded in the system. The 3DIC inventions disclosed herein and in theincorporated referenced documents enable the IoT system to closelyintegrate different crystal devices, for example a layer or layers ofdevices/transistors formed on and/or within mono or poly crystallinesilicon combined with a layer or layers of devices/transistors formed onand/or within Ge, or a layer of layers of GaAs, InP, differing siliconcrystal orientations, and so on. For example, incorporating the 3DICsemiconductor devices according to some embodiments of the invention asor within the IoT systems and mobile systems could provide superior IoTor mobile systems that could operate much more efficiently and for amuch longer time than with prior art technology. The 3DIC technologyherein disclosed provides a most efficient path for heterogeneousintegration with very effective integration reducing cost and operatingpower with the ability to support redundancy for long field life andother advantages which could make such an IoT System commerciallysuccessful.

Alignment is a basic step in semiconductor processing. For most cases itis part of the overall process flow that every successive layer ispatterned when it is aligned to the layer below it. These alignmentscould all be done to one common alignment mark, or to some otheralignment mark or marks that are embedded in a layer underneath. Intoday's equipment such alignment would be precise to below a fewnanometers and better than 40 nm or better than 20 nm and even betterthan 10 nm. In general such alignment could be observed by comparing twodevices processed using the same mask set. If two layers in one devicemaintain their relative relationship in both devices—to fewnanometers—it is clear indication that these layers are aligned each tothe other. This could be achieved by either aligning to the samealignment mark (sometimes called a zero mark alignment scheme), or onelayer is using an alignment mark embedded in the other layer (sometimescalled a direct alignment), or using different alignment marks of layersthat are aligned to each other (sometimes called an indirect alignment).

In this document, the connection made between layers of, generally,single crystal, transistors, which may be variously named for example asthermal contacts and vias, Thru Layer Via (TLV), TSV (Thru Silicon Via),may be made and include electrically and thermally conducting materialor may be made and include an electrically non-conducting but thermallyconducting material or materials. A device or method may includeformation of both of these types of connections, or just one type. Byvarying the size, number, composition, placement, shape, or depth ofthese connection structures, the coefficient of thermal expansionexhibited by a layer or layers may be tailored to a desired value. Forexample, the coefficient of thermal expansion of the second layer oftransistors may be tailored to substantially match the coefficient ofthermal expansion of the first layer, or base layer of transistors,which may include its (first layer) interconnect layers.

Base wafers or substrates, or acceptor wafers or substrates, or targetwafers substrates herein may be substantially comprised of a crystallinematerial, for example, mono-crystalline silicon or germanium, or may bean engineered substrate/wafer such as, for example, an SOI (Silicon onInsulator) wafer or GeOI (Germanium on Insulator) substrate. Similarly,donor wafers herein may be substantially comprised of a crystallinematerial and may include, for example, mono-crystalline silicon orgermanium, or may be an engineered substrate/wafer such as, for example,an SOI (Silicon on Insulator) wafer or GeOI (Germanium on Insulator)substrate, depending on design and process flow choices.

While mono-crystalline silicon has been mentioned as a transistormaterial in this document, other options are possible including, forexample, poly-crystalline silicon, mono-crystalline germanium,mono-crystalline III-V semiconductors, graphene, and various othersemiconductor materials with which devices, such as transistors, may beconstructed within. Moreover, thermal contacts and vias may or may notbe stacked in a substantially vertical line through multiple stacks,layers, strata of circuits. Thermal contacts and vias may includematerials such as sp2 carbon as conducting and sp3 carbon asnon-conducting of electrical current. Thermal contacts and vias mayinclude materials such as carbon nano-tubes. Thermal contacts and viasmay include materials such as, for example, copper, aluminum, tungsten,titanium, tantalum, cobalt metals and/or silicides of the metals. Firstsilicon layers or transistor channels and second silicon layers ortransistor channels may be may be substantially absent of semiconductordopants to form an undoped silicon region or layer, or doped, such as,for example, with elemental or compound species that form a p+, or p, orp−, or n+, or n, or n− silicon layer or region. A heat removal apparatusmay include an external surface from which heat transfer may take placeby methods such as air cooling, liquid cooling, or attachment to anotherheat sink or heat spreader structure. Furthermore, raised source anddrain contact structures, such as etch and epi SiGe and SiC, andimplanted S/Ds (such as C) may be utilized for strain control oftransistor channel to enhance carrier mobility and may provide contactresistance improvements. Damage from the processes may be opticallyannealed. Strain on a transistor channel to enhance carrier mobility maybe accomplished by a stressor layer or layers as well.

In this specification the terms stratum, tier or layer might be used forthe same structure and they may refer to transistors or other devicestructures (such as capacitors, resistors, inductors) that may liesubstantially in a plane format and in most cases such stratum, tier orlayer may include the interconnection layers used to interconnect thetransistors on each. In a 3D device as herein described there may atleast two such planes called tier, or stratum or layer.

In a 3DIC system stack, each layer/stratum may include a differentoperating voltage than other layers/stratum, for example, one stratummay have Vcc of 1.0 v and another may have a Vcc of 0.7 v. For example,one stratum may be designed for logic and have the appropriate Vcc forthat process/device node, and another stratum in the stack may bedesigned for analog devices, and have a different Vcc, likelysubstantially higher in value-for example, greater than 3 volts, greaterthan 5 volts, greater than 8 volts, greater than 10 volts. In a 3DICsystem stack, each layer/stratum may include a different gate dielectricthickness than other layers/stratum. For example, one stratum mayinclude a gate dielectric thickness of 2 nm and another 10 nm. Thedefinition of dielectric thickness may include both a physicaldefinition of material thickness and an electrically ‘effective’thickness of the material, given differing permittivity of thematerials. In a 3DIC system stack, each layer/stratum may includedifferent gate stack materials than other layers/stratum. For example,one stratum may include a HKMG (High k metal gate) stack and anotherstratum may include a polycide/silicon oxide gate stack. In a 3DICsystem stack, each layer/stratum may include a different junction depththan other layers/stratum. For example, the depth of the junctions mayinclude a FET transistor source or drain, bipolar emitter and contactjunctions, vertical device junctions, resistor or capacitor junctions,and so on. For example, one stratum may include junctions of a fullydepleted MOSFET, thus its junction depth may be defined by the thicknessof the stratum device silicon to the vertical isolation, and the otherstratum may also be fully depleted devices with a junction depth definedsimilarly, but one stratum has a thicker silicon layer than the otherwith respect to the respective edges of the vertical isolation. In a3DIC system stack, each layer/stratum may include a different junctioncomposition and/or structure than other layers/stratum. For example, onestratum may include raised source drains that may be constructed from anetch and epitaxial deposition processing, another stratum in the stackmay have implanted and annealed junctions or may employ dopantsegregation techniques, such as those utilized to form DSS Schottkytransistors.

Some 3D device flows presented herein suggest the use of the ELTRAN ormodified ELTRAN techniques and in other time a flow is presented usingthe ion-cut technique. It would be obvious for someone skilled in theart to suggest an alternative process flow by exchanging one layertransfer technique with another. Just as in some steps one couldexchange these layer transfer techniques with others presented herein orin other publication such as the bonding of SOI wafer and etch back.These would be variations for the described and illustrated 3D processflows presented herein.

In various places here or in the incorporated by reference disclosuresof heat removal techniques have been presented and illustrated. It wouldbe obvious to person skilled in the art to apply these techniques to anyof the other variations of 3D devices presented herein.

In various places here or in the incorporated by reference disclosuresof repair and redundancy techniques have been presented and illustrated.It would be obvious to person skilled in the art to apply thesetechniques to any of the other variations of 3D devices presentedherein.

In various places here or in the incorporated by reference disclosuresmemories and other circuit and techniques of customizing and integratingthese structures have been presented and illustrated. It would beobvious to person skilled in the art to apply these techniques andstructures to any of the other variations of 3D devices presented herein

It should be noted that one of the design requirements for a monolithic3DIC design may be that substantially all of the stacked layers and thebase or substrate would have their respective dice lines (may be calledscribe-lines) aligned. As the base wafer or substrate is processed andmultiple circuits may be constructed on semiconductor layers thatoverlay each other, the overall device may be designed wherein eachoverlaying layer would have its respective dice lines overlying the dicelines of the layer underneath, thus at the end of processing the entirelayer stacked wafer/substrate could be diced in a single dicing step.There may be test structures in the streets between dice lines, whichoverall may be called scribe-lanes or dice-lanes. These scribe-lanes ordice-lanes may be 10 um wide, 20 um wide, 50 um wide 100um wide, orgreater than 100 um wide depending on design choice and die singulationprocess capability. The scribe-lanes or dice-lanes may includeguard-ring structures and/or other die border structures. In amonolithic 3D design each layer test structure could be connectedthrough each of the overlying layers and then to the top surface toallow access to these ‘buried’ test structure before dicing the wafer.Accordingly the design may include these vertical connections and mayoffset the layer test structures to enable such connection. In manycases the die borders comprise a protection structure, such as, forexample, a guard-ring structure, die seal structure, ESD structure, andothers elements. Accordingly in a monolithic 3D device these structures,such as guard rings, would be designed to overlay each other and may bealigned to each other during the course of processing. The die edges maybe sealed by a process and structure such as, for example, described inrelation to FIG. 183C of incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 8,273,610, and mayinclude aspects as described in relation to FIGS. 183A and 183B of samereference. One skilled in the art would recognize that the die seal canbe passive or electrically active. On each 3D stack layer, or stratum,the electronic circuits within one die, that may be circumscribed by adice-lane, may not be connected to the electronic circuits of a seconddie on that same wafer, that second die also may be circumscribed by adice-lane. Further, the dice-lane/scribe-lane of one stratum in the 3Dstack may be aligned to the dice-lane/scribe-lane of another stratum inthe 3D stack, thus providing a direct die singulation vector for the 3Dstack of strata/layers.

It will also be appreciated by persons of ordinary skill in the art thatthe invention is not limited to what has been particularly shown anddescribed hereinabove. For example, drawings or illustrations may notshow n or p wells for clarity in illustration. Moreover, transistorchannels illustrated or discussed herein may include dopedsemiconductors, but may instead include undoped semiconductor material.Further, any transferred layer or donor substrate or wafer preparationillustrated or discussed herein may include one or more undoped regionsor layers of semiconductor material. Moreover, epitaxial regrow ofsource and drains may utilize processes such as liquid phase epitaxialregrowth or solid phase epitaxial regrowth, and may utilize flash orlaser processes to freeze dopant profiles in place and may also permitnon-equilibrium enhanced activation (superactivation). Further,transferred layer or layers may have regions of STI or other transistorelements within it or on it when transferred. Rather, the scope of theinvention includes combinations and sub-combinations of the variousfeatures described hereinabove as well as modifications and variationswhich would occur to such skilled persons upon reading the foregoingdescription. Thus the invention is to be limited only by the appendedclaims.

1. A 3D semiconductor device, the device comprising: a first level,wherein said first level comprises a first layer, said first layercomprising first transistors, and wherein said first level comprises asecond layer, said second layer comprising first interconnections; asecond level overlaying said first level, wherein said second levelcomprises a third layer, said third layer comprising second transistors,and wherein said second level comprises a fourth layer, said fourthlayer comprising second interconnections; and a plurality of connectionpaths, wherein said plurality of connection paths provides connectionsfrom a plurality of said first transistors to a plurality of said secondtransistors, wherein said second level is bonded to said first level,wherein said bonded comprises oxide to oxide bond regions, wherein saidbonded comprises metal to metal bond regions, and wherein said secondlevel comprises at least one voltage regulator.
 2. The device accordingto claim 1, wherein said second level comprises at least one PLLcircuit.
 3. The device according to claim 1, wherein said second levelcomprises at least one SerDes circuit.
 4. The device according to claim1, wherein said first level comprises a first clock tree, wherein saidsecond level comprises a second clock tree, wherein at least one of saidconnection paths comprises connecting between said first clock tree andsaid second clock tree.
 5. The device according to claim 1, wherein saidfirst level comprises a first die area, wherein said second levelcomprises a second die area, wherein said first die area is larger thansaid second die area.
 6. The device according to claim 1, wherein saidfirst level comprises at least one control circuit, wherein said secondlevel comprises at least one memory array, and wherein said controlcircuit controls data written to said at least one memory array.
 7. Thedevice according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said secondtransistors is a FinFET type transistor.
 8. A 3D semiconductor device,the device comprising: a first level, wherein said first level comprisesa first layer, said first layer comprising first transistors, andwherein said first level comprises a second layer, said second layercomprising first interconnections; a second level overlaying said firstlevel, wherein said second level comprises a third layer, said thirdlayer comprising second transistors, and wherein said second levelcomprises a fourth layer, said fourth layer comprising secondinterconnections; and a plurality of connection paths, wherein saidplurality of connection paths provides connections from a plurality ofsaid first transistors to a plurality of said second transistors,wherein said second level is bonded to said first level, wherein saidbonded comprises oxide to oxide bond regions, wherein said bondedcomprises metal to metal bond regions, and wherein said second levelcomprises at least one charge pump circuit.
 9. The device according toclaim 8, wherein said second level comprises at least one PLL circuit.10. The device according to claim 8, wherein said second level comprisesat least one SerDes circuit.
 11. The device according to claim 8,wherein said first level comprises a first clock tree, wherein saidsecond level comprises a second clock tree, wherein at least one of saidconnection paths comprises connecting between said first clock tree andsaid second clock tree.
 12. The device according to claim 8, whereinsaid first level comprises a first die area, wherein said second levelcomprises a second die area, wherein said first die area is larger thansaid second die area.
 13. The device according to claim 8, wherein saidfirst level comprises at least one control circuit, wherein said secondlevel comprises at least one memory array, and wherein said controlcircuit controls data written to said at least one memory array.
 14. Thedevice according to claim 8, wherein at least one of said secondtransistors is a FinFET type transistor.
 15. A 3D semiconductor device,the device comprising: a first level, wherein said first level comprisesa first layer, said first layer comprising first transistors, andwherein said first level comprises a second layer, said second layercomprising first interconnections; a second level overlaying said firstlevel, wherein said second level comprises a third layer, said thirdlayer comprising second transistors, and wherein said second levelcomprises a fourth layer, said fourth layer comprising secondinterconnections; and a plurality of connection paths, wherein saidplurality of connection paths provides connections from a plurality ofsaid first transistors to a plurality of said second transistors,wherein said second level is bonded to said first level, wherein saidbonded comprises oxide to oxide bond regions, wherein said bondedcomprises metal to metal bond regions, wherein said second levelcomprises at least one area I/O, and wherein said second level comprisesat least one charge pump circuit.
 16. The device according to claim 15,wherein said second level comprises at least one PLL circuit.
 17. Thedevice according to claim 15, wherein said second level comprises atleast one SerDes circuit.
 18. The device according to claim 15, whereinsaid first level comprises a first clock tree, wherein said second levelcomprises a second clock tree, wherein at least one of said connectionpaths comprises connecting between said first clock tree and said secondclock tree.
 19. The device according to claim 15, wherein said firstlevel comprises at least one control circuit, wherein said second levelcomprises at least one memory array, and wherein said control circuitcontrols data written to said at least one memory array.
 20. The deviceaccording to claim 15, wherein at least one of said second transistorsis a FinFET type transistor.